Lawless
by Sarin-sama
Summary: Trafalgar Law, the Captain of the Heart Pirates, is docked on Amazon Lily when a mysterious blind girl with the uncanny ability to sense her surroundings begs to join his crew...but there's more to her story than even she knows. R&R please and thanks!
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

* * *

><p>Clear like ice, but just as cold,<br>Bloodshot eyes, they take a hold,  
>Pierce like knives, down to your soul,<br>And shake you to the bone.  
>Insanity and chaos locked in calm,<br>Those bloodshot eyes inflict a qualm,  
>A shiver and shake.<br>Your soul is his to take.

"You won't listen to me, will you?" an old voice asked. I could see her outline in all the shadow, hunched and bent over, relying on a hand-carved staff for her balance. Though it was mid afternoon, the world was dark to me, filled with shapes and shadows that were my only source of sight.

"No," I answered Elder Nyon shortly, "I've already decided."

Elder Nyon shook her head, "But we don't know these men! Sure they helped Luffy, but they could still be bad people. They're pirates after all."

I slung my quiver of bows over my shoulder and urged my battlesnake Pim, to coil around my waist. I instinctively touched the bronze locket that hung from my neck, "Nothing you say will change my mind. I need to find out what happened to me…why I am this way. Surely if I show that I am useful, the captain will let me join him – if only for a while."

"Can't you just forget the past and accept what you are? You're special – you should learn to appreciate it." Elder Nyon placed a wrinkled hand on my shoulder.

I sighed, "I do appreciate it – but that doesn't abate my curiosity or answer my questions. There must be a reason that I'm like this – and that reason isn't here."

Elder Nyon was quiet. Finally she sighed and grabbed my wrist, "Fine then – come with me first…there are a few things you need to know before gallivanting off on a pirate ship."

"I think their vessel is a submarine, Elder."

I could practically feel her exasperation as I'm sure she rolled her eyes at me.


	2. Chapter 1

**So here's my Law Fic xD i hope you like it**

**Note: i do not own One Piece, but i do own my OC, Sarin.**

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><p>~Chapter One~<p>

The captain of the Heart Pirates could hear Straw Hat Luffy's agonized scream from up on deck, and smirked. His eyes shined with sickening interest at the thought of how much pain the young captain was in. Pain was of great fascination to the Captian.

Trafalgar Law gave a small chuckle to himself as he turned to his first mate.

"Bepo, clear up the sick bay. I'm going to get some air and watch the show." Law smirked.

At first glance, you'd do a double take and scratch your head. Law seemed to be talking to none other than a fluffy white bear in a vibrant orange jumpsuit. You'd think, "Certainly there must be someone hiding behind the bear," – at least until you heard the bear talk.

"Yes, Captain," The bear spoke blandly. His voice was higher pitched than you'd expect from a bear, and much more calm.

Law left the sick bay in charge of the bear, Bepo, who went to work scrubbing down the operation table with bleach and other chemicals.

Law's footsteps were quiet on the metal floor of the submarine. His sick bay, along with the navigation room was on the uppermost floor of the sub, thereby taking Law a relatively short amount of time to reach the top deck.

As he stepped out into the salty air, he watched the forest in the distance as trees were being knocked down senselessly, uprooted and then thrown about as if they were twigs. The Straw Hat captain may be an idiot, but he was a strong idiot.

A blue Whale-Shark Fishman pulled himself out of the ocean and looked towards the forest scene with sadness in his eyes. Jinbe looked up to Captain Trafalgar and asked, "Will he be alright?"

Law shook his head, "If he keeps that up, he'll tear his stitches and die. You might want to go and stop him if you want him to live."

Jinbe's eyes widened and he quickly took off in the direction of the distraught Luffy.

Law smirked again and listened as more cries of anguish echoed from the forest.

The sub was halted by a jutting cliff that stuck out into the water at the exact right height for people to get on and off the sub without needing a ladder or jumping into the ocean. The cliff bled back into the mainland and stretched all the way around the island. Most of the Heart Pirates were lounging on the jutting cliff, eating some of the provisions the ladies of Amazon Lily had brought out to them.

They were laughing amongst themselves and ripping into the food, always glancing toward the area where the women usually emerged, hoping to catch more glimpses of the legendary beauties of Amazon Lily.

Law happened to glance at that particular area, but spotted more than just jungle trees and vines as had been the only thing there before. Now there was a figure standing there, watching the pirates, as though catching its breath or perhaps building up its nerve.

Obviously it was a woman, but she looked young, seventeen at the oldest. She had her fiery red hair shorn at her shoulders, with blue feathers woven into a small braid that hung down the left side of her face. She had a quiver of arrows on her back, a blue and purple snake wound around her thin waist, and a satchel hanging from her neck and draped over her right hip. Rather than the traditional revealing apparel he had seen on the women of Amazon Lily, this girl wore a lose fitting yellow T-shirt, and jean shorts that came down to her lower thigh, almost touching her knee-caps.

Law watched her curiously, interested in the scene that was about to play out.

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><p>I had been standing there for a few minutes now, not exactly out in the open, but not completely hidden either. If anyone gave more than a quick glance in my direction, they would undoubtedly see me standing there like a statue, frozen due to nerves. I let out a breath to empty my lungs and stepped out of the cover of the forest.<p>

I walked solemnly towards the men who were gathered around the provisions my Amazon Lily sisters had brought them, and walked until someone noticed me.

"Hey – there's a girl there," One of them finally mentioned. They murmured amongst themselves, and I stopped a few feet away.

I took a deep breath and expelled all the nervousness from my voice and thoughts. "May I speak with your captain?" I asked calmly.

Their murmurs grew louder, and I heard one of them whisper, "What's wrong with her eyes?"

I pretended not to hear and waited for someone to answer me.

Finally a calm but unnervingly smooth voice spoke to me. "I thought the ladies of Amazon Lily had been instructed not to speak with us?" For some reason, his voice sent a chill down my spine. I ignored it and faced the source of the voice – the Captain, I assumed. His shadowy outline was walking through the gathered crowd of his men, and didn't stop walking until he was a foot away from me.

"We were, but I am not one of theirs to command. You're Captain Law?" I asked.

"You're correct," he stated, expecting me to talk once again.

I got a strange feeling from him – one that froze my insides. The cause was probably because of all the news reports Elder Nyon read to me about him…he had done some horrible things, and that, mixed with his calm, icy personality was unnerving.

"I want to join your crew," I spoke as solidly as I could. This could be my only chance to start out on my own – I needed this to work, even if that meant they'd only go as far as to drop me off at some island and leave me there. Even if that was all they'd do, I would accept it. One step away from Amazon Lily was one step closer to the truth I so desperately craved.

I could almost feel his eyes narrow as he scrutinized me. The eyes of the rest of the crew fell on me – but I was pretty sure they had been watching me already. A few of the Heart Pirates laughed, but most of them watched silently, waiting for their captain to respond.

I continued, "I'm a hard worker and a good fighter, so you don't have to worry about me weighing you down or causing trouble."

Still they were all silent, drinking in my words. Finally the Captain spoke, a smirk of amusement clearly audible his voice, "You are clearly blind. Your eyes make it obvious – how are you a good fighter if you can't see?"

I smiled lightly, glad I would be able to give a demonstration before he tried to turn me down. At least I was getting a chance. "Point to any target and I promise I can hit it."

He was silent as he picked out a challenging target. "Okay – a top branch of the red oak tree," he answered.

"The one behind all the leech trees, or the one near the water?" I asked.

"Both."

I nodded and gave a light pinch under Pim's head. She immediately obeyed my nonverbal command and uncoiled herself from my waist. Pim formed herself into a bow, and stiffened. I quickly looped the strong twine around her head and tail.

I plucked two arrows from the leather quiver on my back. I notched the first one. I took a calming breath, letting nothing but my targets into my mind.

I released the arrow, sending it towards its mark in the high branches of the red oak hidden behind the leech trees, and then within the next second had my second arrow notched and released.

I spun back around to face the Captain and his crew, as I watched the shadowy forms of my two arrows strike their marks as promised.

Someone in the crew whistled in admiration.

The Captain hummed, "Interesting…is it a form of Haki?"

I nodded, "Yes. Though I am completely blind, it allows me to see the shapes and shadows of everything around me. I have a vision radius of about a mile in every direction."

"Interesting," he repeated, "How about another test, then?"

I swallowed and nodded, "Of course."

"There is one person in the sub at the moment. Can you tell me what he's doing?"

I nodded and pin-pointed my Haki towards the sub. I started on the decks and entered through the top hatch. There was what I assumed to be a navigation room, and a hallway, but both were empty. Then I came to a room that sent chills down my spine. It was a sick bay.

The chill was due to my fear of hospitals and doctors – but I kept my Haki in the room. There was a person in there…or at least something moving.

It seemed much larger than any average man I had ever seen (though, of course that number was small until just recently), and gave off a strange vibe that hinted something other than human. He was a tall and thick figure, and seemed to be washing something in a sink.

"Well…he's washing something in a sink in the hospital room…but, are you sure he's human? He seems…like something more." I answered nervously.

"Perceptive," Law said with a strange smile in his voice. He didn't expand upon the subject of the Not-Entirely-Human being in the sub, but instead he turned to his men. "Crew," he spoke pointedly, "Go back to the ship. I'm sure you can come up with some work that needs to be done."

"Yes, Captain," The crew murmured dissonantly. They stood from their places on the ground, picking up whatever food they could get their hands on in the process. Law was quiet as he waited for his crew to disappear into the submarine. I felt his gaze on me, sending ripples through my skin.

I waited patiently for him to speak.

The last crew member vanished from the deck of the submarine, and Law finally spoke, "So why are you so interested in joining my crew? I thought the women of the island already had their own pirate crew…"

I nodded and decided to answer with the truth – I didn't quite trust this man, especially after all of the stories I heard about him being the "Surgeon of Death", but he seemed the type to react badly to being lied too. "I'm looking for a few truths about myself, and getting away from Amazon Lily and the women here is the first step to finding them."

I felt his eyes narrow again and the air between us start to chill, "What kind of truths?"

I hesitated but answered, "I want to find out who I was before I washed up on this island…I was found washed up on a beach here when I was eight, with nothing I my head but my name. I had no idea where I had been, or who I belonged to, or why I was there. I think that getting away from the island will allow my memories to come back…"

Law pondered my questions and I hoped he didn't have any more. There were a few things I would like to keep to myself for as long as possible.

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><p>This girl was strange, he thought to himself, but not as strange as some of the things he'd seen on the Grand Line. There was more to this than she was telling. His sadistic nature was telling him to ask her more questions – make her feel as uncomfortable as possible, and maybe even bring up some bad memory.<p>

He smirked at the idea of seeing her scarred and glazed over amber eyes tear up while she tried to be strong and convincing.

But, something in his gut was telling him he should take her – let her join the crew. She had more power than she was letting on, and it could be a good thing as long as she didn't put the crew in danger.

Law finally gave into his more rational side and gave the girl a half-smile even though she couldn't see it, "Alright…I'll let you join us – but if you cause any problems, or endanger our crew, I will kick you out, no matter where we are."

She nodded, a slight twitch moving the corner of her mouth into a smile, "Thank you, Captain."

Law gave a small chuckle at her eagerness, "So Miss, what should I have the crew call you?"

She swallowed, "The women on the island gave me a new name when they found me, but my real name is Sarin."

He nodded, "Welcome to the Heart Pirates, Miss Sarin."


	3. Chapter 2

~Chapter 2~

Law walked ahead, leading me towards the submarine, not bothering to offer me an arm for guidance. Some people might think of that as rude, not offering a blind person an arm or hand to gasp onto for safety, but I saw it as a good gesture. It meant he didn't pity me, or think I was in need of help.

He opened the door that led into the upper floor, and found all of his crew trying to act unobtrusive in the wide hallway near the door. I couldn't really blame them – they wanted to know what was going on. I hid a smile as I imagined all of the crewmembers crowding around a small window, trying to see what was going on outside.

Captain's presence in the room, commanded their attention and he quickly addressed them. "Miss Sarin will be joining our crew." His shadow shifted and looked down to me, "For now I'll have my first mate show you around and find you a job."

I nodded, and saw in the back of the room, that the strange Not-Entirely-Human being entered. It looked around the crowd as if confused.

"Everyone, prepare for submergence – we'll be departing in a few hours or so. Penguin, take your team and prep the boiler and engines; Shachi check and tie down the supplies."

Murmurs and unsatisfied _Yes Captain_'s rang throughout the room, as the crew members dispersed to go about their routine jobs for departure.

"Bepo," Captain stated.

The room was empty now except for the Captain and I, and the Not-Entirely-Human shadow.

"Yes, Captain?" the strange shadow-shape spoke in an alto tone, sounding unsure of the situation.

"You missed out on all the fun – Miss Sarin here has joined our crew."

"Oh," The strange shadow-shape named Bepo looked down to me, "Hello." I could hear a confused yet happy smile in his voice. Whatever he was, he seemed friendly.

"Hi," I said with a smile as well, though mine was still a little more curious than friendly.

"Bepo," Captain Law started again, "Would you please show her to the empty quarters on the low deck? And give her a quick tour on the way down?"

"Yes, Captain," Bepo stated. Captain Law nodded and then headed back for the door. He disappeared outside, the door clicking closed behind him.

Bepo looked around awkwardly and then held out an arm for me to grab onto. I took his polite gesture without a word – though I did notice that his arm seemed rather…fluffy beneath the thick fabric of his sleeve – and allowed him to lead me through the submarine. "Err, on the upper deck is the navigation and radar room as well as the sick bay. On the mid deck is the kitchen and galley, and most of the sleeping quarters. On the low deck is the boiler and engine rooms, the Captain's quarters, the storage rooms, and your room as well." Bepo led me quickly down the stairs and through each of the levels.

After his quick explanation of the floors, Bepo eyed Prim as her coils shifted around my waist. "Is that a snake?"

I nodded and smiled, giving Prim an affectionate pat on her scaly head, "Prim – my battlesnake. I hope it will be okay to keep her on board."

"You should probably try to keep it in your room…I'm sure Broth won't mind setting aside some food for it."

The hallways were metallic and slightly chilly. Both of our feet made similar padding sounds as we walked, and I vaguely wondered if he was barefooted as well. The sick bay smelled sickly of antiseptic and bleach, but the smell of the mid deck wasn't much better. I could tell that this was the floor with the men's sleeping quarters by the smell alone, though it got better once we got to the galley and kitchen, where better smells of food were wafting through the air.

As we descended down to the low deck, I felt the air gradually become warmer, probably due to the boiler that Bepo had mentioned. I could hear him start to breath heavier the closer we got to the boiler room.

"Your room is down the hall from the captains," Bepo panted, "It's smaller, but has its own bathroom." He panted more, "I hate this floor."

I smiled, "Well I'll set my stuff down quickly so we can get out of here."

Bepo nodded his overly large head, "Thanks."

I opened the narrow door, and saw the shadowy shapes of a bed, a small nightstand with a few drawers, and a doorway that led to a small bathroom complete with tub, sink and shower. It was small, but I didn't need much room.

"We could probably put a lamp in there too – it gets really dark on this floor." He offered.

I laughed and as I faced him he realized what he said. "Oh – sorry."

"That's okay – I'm not afraid of a little dark." I set my satchel down on my bed, along with my quiver of arrows. In a hurry to leave the room so that Bepo didn't have to suffer much more of the heat, I quickly shoved Prim into the shower of my small bathroom after checking to make sure that the drain was grated…I didn't want her somehow sneaking into the pipes of the submarine.

I spun out of the bathroom, closing the door behind me to prevent Prim from wandering about into mischief, and hurried to Bepo at the doorway. I grabbed a hold of his arm, again noticeing how puffy it was beneath the sleeve, and let him lead me back to the stairs. Once back on the mid deck, he led me into the kitchen, where he muttered about bad hand writing.

I was completely confused by his mutterings, so I focused harder on the wall in front of him. What I took to be a stack of papers was hanging from a nail in the wall. I heard Bepo flipping through the papers, and I guessed it was a sign-up sheet of some sort. Finally he let the pages fall back into place and turned to me, "How does kitchen-cleanup sound? It doesn't have to be permanent – just until we find you something specific to do."

I nodded, "Sounds good."

"Err, so I'll introduce you to Broth, the cook.

I nodded again and passed through a curtain that had been put up between the tables and the kitchen. The air was filled with a more concentrated aroma of some kind of stew and I could hear Bepo's stomach growl in complaint. His nose started sniffing the air loudly, and once again I was tempted to ask him what he was.

I refrained of course, reasoning that it was probably rude to ask, but I was still curious.

Another figure was in the room, standing over a large cauldron like pot on the stove. He started speaking before he gave us a proper look, "Oi! I already told you I'm not letting you have a taste!" Once he spotted us he muttered a mild curse word, "Sorry – thought it was that thief, Teamer, again. What's up Bepo?"

"Broth, this is Sarin – she's gonna be your clean-up shift until we find her something more permanent." Bepo explained.

Broth's eyes looked me over quickly, "So you're blind, but can see shapes and stuff?"

I nodded.

"Hmm, well, yeh'll probably do better than any o' the guys on this crew. They're probably blinder than you when it comes to cleaning." Broth tossed me something from a wall, and I caught it with an outstretched hand.

It was a course fabric, and as I stretched it out, I felt its shape with my fingers. A thick and probably grease-stained apron was now in my hands. I threw it over my neck and tied the stings around my waist.

"I've got to go," Bepo stated as he flew out of the kitchen, trying to stifle another roaring stomach growl.

"So what do you need me to do?" I asked, turning back to the cook.

"Well, I can't have yeh washing dishes because yeh won't be able to tell if it's clean or not – so for now just wipe down the tables with a dry rag, and I'll come up with something else later."

I nodded, "Got it."

Broth handed me a few rags and went back to minding the stew while chopping up peeled potatoes and dropping them into a large dish. It was strange, but I could tell all of the ingredients he was using just by smell alone. My Haki vision was useless when it came to foods, because a lot of foods had the same outline and shape – like broccoli could easily be cauliflower, or a small onion could be mistaken for an apple. I had to rely on my advanced sense of smell that came along with the absent vision.

I wiped down tables, hoping that whatever job I got next, I could be helpful.

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><p>Law was walking through the woods, following the trail of uprooted trees and trampled foliage. That Luffy really had done some damage. Thunderous booms and crashes were coming from up ahead. Law let the sound of chaos guide him to the young captain and the large Fishman.<p>

Luffy had stopped his screaming, but was still throwing powerful punches at a large boulder in his way. Jinbe was sitting cross-legged not far from him. Law walked up silently to Jinbe and said smoothly, "At least he isn't moving his torso much."

Jinbe had probably noticed his presence and therefore wasn't startled. Jinbe just nodded. "Thank you, Trafalgar Law. You saved us both."

Law shrugged and stared at the rampaging Captain, "I had my reasons."

Jinbe sent a curious look at Trafalgar, and then looked back at Luffy. "Are you leaving then?"

Law nodded and tossed a small baggie of white pills into Jinbe's lap. "Make sure he gets one of these a day, until they're all gone. They'll help his body retain enough energy to heal quicker."

Jinbe nodded as Law walked back the way he had come, through the signs of destruction. He sent a wave over his head, not really caring if anyone saw it or not. He didn't care for goodbyes, so he figured this would suffice. And besides, it wasn't like he and the boy were friends now, or anything. Law had just been following his gut instinct…and now he had something to hold over the young captain, if there was ever a need for it.

He hopped aboard his sub again and entered the cool dimness of the upper floor without a last glance at the island. He had seen better and more exciting islands than this one – ones with women who were not off-limits to him and his men.

Law smirked and entered the navigation room. Teamer, his top navigator, looked up to him and asked, "Are we ready Captain?"

Law nodded and picked up the microphone for the speaker system and spoke calmly into it. Even through a speaker, his crew could feel the icy chill in his voice, "Prepare for submersion in two minutes."

He clicked the speaker off, and leaned against the door as Teamer kept an eye on the radar and made sure all the adjustments were spot-on. Occasionally he would use the speaker system to call to individual rooms to double check a reading, or make sure something was correct.

Law gave him the go-ahead two minutes later, and as Teamer brought them under, red lights and a playful sounding siren that sounded like a "yip" went off, signaling their descent. He left Teamer to his job, knowing that the log pose was pointing them towards Sabaody Archipelago. With his tattooed hands shoved into the front pockets of his favorite leopard-spotted jeans, he strolled down to his office on the low deck.

He happened across Bepo on the mid-deck and asked, "So where has Miss Sarin been stationed?"

"Err, kitchen-cleanup for the time being, Captain," Bepo informed.

Law nodded and watched his first mate go about his business. If he had fully understood the term friend, he would have used it on Bepo. Though the white bear was an underling of his, Law had known him the longest. The bear was the only one he trusted to know his past…anyone else who had known him back then had ended up dead and buried under the thick snows of the North Blue.

Once down on the low deck, he entered his office and rummaged around for one of the two keys to the extra quarter's that was now the girl's room. He finally found them in a drawer of his desk beside a new medical journal he was in the middle of reading, and pulled one of them out.

Law slid it into his pocket, and headed towards the storage room further down the hall.

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><p>I felt the sinking motion of the sub as I helped Broth keep the stew and mashed potatoes from spilling as we sank deeper and deeper into the ocean. This was one of those times I wished I could see out the circular window that I knew was just in front of me. Though my stomach felt oddly light and displaced at the new sensation, I could feel excitement and a sense of thrill building in my heart.<p>

Broth must have seen the strange mix of discomfort and excitement written on my face and laughed heartily, "Don't worry – yeh'll get used to the feeling."

I gave him a small smile and went to work wiping down the counters.

Finally Broth was satisfied with the food, and let me sample it. I thought the warm and comforting stew was definitely good, but it needed more spice. Thyme or Rosemary maybe. Still I congratulated him on it, not wanting to belittle his cooking skill.

"Guess I'll call the dogs in," he sighed. I watched his thick outline walk across the kitchen and stop by an apparently empty wall. There must have been a panel of some sort there because he pressed a button invisible to my eyes, which gave a static-click that echoed throughout the ship. Broth's rough voice bounded out of the com-system and reverberated down the metal walls of the sub. "Oi!" he shouted, "Food's on, so get yer ungrateful mouths to the galley."

Another static-click sounded Broth's unfriendly end, as he turned off the com-system once again. I smirked at his ruff manner as he pushed a plate into my hands, "That's the good thing about working in the kitchen," he confided in me, "We get the first pick of food."

I laughed and followed him out the curtain to the galley tables. There were three cold metallic tables: two longer ones for the regular crew and one smaller one shoved into the corner that I assumed to be reserved for the Captain and a select few. Broth and I sat on the end of one table that was farther away from the curtained entrance to the kitchen. He sat across from me, as the crew started pushing and quarreling their way into the food. They formed a sort of assembly line, entering through the curtain and then coming out a minute or so later with their food. I was surprised slightly when I saw Law's outline waiting in line with the rest of his men – though obviously he wasn't rowdy and obnoxious. He stood with his thumbs hooked in the pockets of his jeans, his stance sending off vibes of boredom and slight irritation. I also noticed Bepo's strange outline standing dutifully by his side.

Again, I found my thoughts pondering _what _in the world he was, when three outlines headed in my direction. "So, you're Sarin, right?" asked the shortest of the shadows, who sat down next to Broth. He had a grainy voice that sounded as scrawny as he was. I could feel his eyes assessing me as he waited for me to speak.

"You are correct," I smirked.

"I'm Mickey, but everyone calls me Rice for reasons still unknown to me."

I couldn't help but giggle, "It suits you perfectly."

"We always thought so," A second man with both an average height and build set his plate down next to mine. His voice had a sweet and simple timbre, "I'm Seko."

"And I, dear Sarin, am Penguin," said a third and forcibly charming voice. Its owner was an average sized shadow with a rather large and oddly shaped hat drooping from his head. He held out his hand to me, so I took it.

"Nice to meet you all."

"And you as well," Penguin replied – again, his voice trying too hard to be charming.

"Oi! Cut it out. Yeh'll just creep her out, Pen," Broth warned before taking another bite of stew. He swore mildly and grumbled to himself about spices.

"Yeah – she just got here," Rice's grainy voice laughed. Penguin grumbled as well, and set his plate down beside Rice, who continued speaking, "So you really can't see? Like, no colors or nothing?"

I nodded, "Just dark shadows and shapes."

"I bet that's frustrating," Seko spoke sympathetically.

"Yeah, but it's better than nothing. It keeps me from running into walls at least," I smiled.

"Very true," Seko responded, a smirk in his simple voice.

"So are there any unspoken rules I should know?" I asked curiously, to veer the topic off of myself.

The guys seemed to think a minute before Penguin spoke up, "Basically, don't piss off the Captain. He can be really lax at times, but when he's pissed off, you see the reason for his bad reputation."

I nodded taking in the information. It was basically a given already – I wasn't planning on purposely angering the Captain and endangering my life – but it was good to hear that I wasn't the only one who thought him eerie. Sure Penguin didn't say that, but his voice spelled out the thought for me as loud as any words.


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but Sarin is of my own creation.**

To my one reviewer: **Elielephant**, thanks for reading lol I figured it would be okay to use Haki with Sarin because the women of Amazon Lily use it with their weapons, and I figured that they'd teach it to her (There will be more explaination in the coming chapters lol) I'm glad you like it so far, and hope I can keep your intersest. xD

So here's the next chapter - enjoy!

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><p>~ Chapter 3 ~<p>

"Other than that," Rice continued, "There's nothing you really need to know. You'll learn it all quickly."

"Hmm, so what are your guys' jobs around here?" I asked, curious to know more about where and who I would be spending my unforeseeable future with.

"Seko and I are engine mechanics – probably half the crew works down on the low deck with either the engines or the boilers," Penguin answered. He shoveled half of his plate down his throat – which was most likely the cause of Broth's sudden wave of irritation.

"I'm one of the medical assistants, but when I'm not doing that, I get stuck in the laundry room," Rice complained.

"I'm sure there are worse jobs than doing laundry," I comforted, losing my thoughts in trying to come up with something other than helping in the kitchen that I could do. I wanted to be helpful, and prove to the Captain – even if he was eerie and homicidal – that I wouldn't be a burden. I pondered all of the possible jobs there could be on the sub, but could come up with nothing that a blind person would be able to do. Cleaning anything required sight, or else you wouldn't know whether it was actually cleaned or not; I didn't have any mechanical expertise, so the engines weren't a possibility; cooking would both be hazardous to my health and the crew's; and the thought of being anywhere near the sick bay sent convulsing chills down my spine.

I listened to the guys complain collectively about their jobs and chores, and smiled as the conversation turned into bickering amongst themselves – though Seko was content to sit on the sidelines of the argument while adding a few tidbits of information when necessary.

As plates emptied, the crew started leaving the galley, a few even stopping by my table on the way out to introduce themselves. I met a big and burly beast of a man that went by the name of Jean Bart; a honey-toned voice who preferred Jackal over his real name (which he would not tell me); and a quiet shadow that almost blended into the dark background of my limited vision named Kinney.

So far I knew nine of the sixteen men on the submarine – this included Law and Bepo. I tried to file away all their voices in my head along with any stand-out physical traits I could glean, and hoped that I would be able to remember them all sufficiently.

With me, the crew would equal seventeen.

As the galley cleared out, I stayed behind with Broth to help clean up. I stacked empty dishes that had been lazily left out on the tables by the guys, and placed them in the sudsy water of the sink. While Broth started washing the dishes, leaving the drying and organization for me to do, I went back out to the galley to wipe down the tables with a damp cloth.

I was about to start on the smallest table, crammed into the corner, when the Captain's tall and slightly intimidating shadow strolled in to join me.

"Hello, Miss Sarin," He greeted smoothly, breaking the silence around us, "I trust your first day wasn't too stressful."

I forced a polite smile, "No, Captain, it was quite interesting."

"Good," Law held out his hand to me and continued, "Here's the key to your room. You should keep it locked at all times – specifically when you're sleeping." He didn't explain further.

I held in a shiver at the thought, and plucked the small key from his hands – which were oddly soft, but when I thought about it, doctors usually needed soft hands. I stowed the key in the pocket of my shorts and gave him a nod.

"When Broth releases you from duty, stop by my quarters." He spun around and started for the door.

"Yes, Captain," I answered stiffly, watching his outline stroll out of the galley.

My cheek twitched uncomfortably. I told myself to calm down – he probably needed to talk to me about something private, or give me a few rules. It was nothing to get worked up about, but still I had a cold feeling in my stomach. That man just gave me the creeps – and his title "The Surgeon of Death" didn't do much to abate my qualms.

I went back to the job I was supposed to be doing, wiping down the tables with the damp cloth and drying them off with a clean one. Once that was done I joined Broth at the sink and dried off the plates and pots he handed me. He showed me where everything went, and I got the job of putting the clean dishes and silverware back in their places. It probably took an hour to get everything done, and by the time the last fork was put away, Broth had left me alone in the kitchen.

I familiarized myself with the layout. If kitchen duty was the only thing I'd be able to help with, I was going to do it flawlessly. I touched all the dials on the oven and the handles to the drawers and cupboards; used my fingers to outline the various appliances and figure out all their features – there was a coffee machine, a toaster oven, and a mixer currently on the counters; and ran my hands along the counter tops and against the fridge to mark in my memory where everything was.

Finally satisfied with my knowledge of the layout, I untied my apron and pulled it from around my neck. I hung it over my arm and started for the low deck. I stopped in the doorway out of the galley and turned around.

I had forgotten to get Prim something to eat. I opened the fridge and remembered where Broth had stored the leftover stew. There had only been a small bowl left over, but Broth claimed he hated to throw away perfectly good food. I took the bowl from the fridge and again took off for the low deck.

I stopped by my room quickly and threw the apron onto my bed. I opened the door to the bathroom to find Prim coiled up in the small sink. I smirked at her strange nest and set the bowl of stew down in the shower, making a mental note to ask Broth tomorrow if he had any raw meat for the snake.

Making sure to close the bathroom door behind me, I left Prim to sleep in her nest, and headed for the Captain's quarters a few doors down the hall. I stood silently outside his door for a moment before knocking.

His smooth and icy voice spoke, "Come in."

I touched the cold door knob and swung the door inward. I took a few shallow steps forward and stayed close to the door. The shadowy outline of the Captain sat behind a desk. His quarters was slightly larger than mine, with room enough for a decent sized bed, a desk, and a bookcase. He also had a small closet and a private bathroom.

He looked up at me and stood from his seat. He walked around the desk and said coolly, "Follow me."

He stepped past me out the door, and I did as he told me. I followed him down the narrow corridor to a small room with shelves lining the walls. I couldn't quite tell what was on the shelves, due to outlines too vague for an accurate guess, but I guessed they were supplies and such. Law stopped in the middle of the room and I waited for him to explain what was going on.

He rummaged through shelves pulling off a few random things. After a few minutes of nothing but his quite steps and the sounds of his looking through the shelves, he turned to me with a small stack of things in his hands.

"This room is the storage area. There are towels, toiletries, and other items like that." He placed the stack of items in my hands. I carefully felt through the pile and found a few bath towels, a bottle of shampoo, a bar of soap, and a coarse material that felt a lot like Bepo's sleeve.

"The white jumpsuit is the uniform, though it isn't required. The men just prefer it for its simplicity. If you choose to wear it, I'd suggest wearing something underneath."

"Why's that?" I asked, not quite understanding.

"It's white and slightly transparent. Considering there is nothing but men on the sub, it doesn't take much for them to get…distracted," he said amusedly.

My lips tightened, "Alright then – layers it is."

"And be sure to remember what I said about locking your door at night. Pirates are not known for their chivalry."

Leaving me pale-faced at his last comment, he walked out of the room with a smirky "Goodnight."

I suppressed another shiver, and left the room after a few seconds, to give him a chance to get into his office before I entered the hallway. He may be my Captain, but I would do my best to avoid unnecessary contact with him. Those uncomfortable shivers made my blood freeze in their veins. It was creepy how calm and amused he sounded when talking about such awkward and crude topics.

I hurried into my room and followed his advice. The key clicked in the lock, and I was grateful for the barrier between me and the rest of the world. I opened the bathroom door and sorted through the new things Law had given me. I hung the fluffy towel on the small metal hook by the shower door, threw the jumpsuit onto my bed, and put the soaps in the shower.

I found a package of feminine supplies for my monthlies and wondered vaguely why he had these on his ship in the first place. He was either oddly prepared or had a lot of female visitors on the sub. I figured it was the latter, and forced myself to think of other topics.

With everything put away I started taking my belongings out of my satchel and putting them in the small chest of drawers by my bed. My spare clothes which Elder Nyon had prepared for me – she had convinced me that wearing the traditional Amazon Lily clothes would be a bad idea, and now that I had gotten more of a feel for the crew was inclined to agree with her, especially after Law's words – I put in the lowest of the two drawers along with the apron and jumpsuit. The rest of my belongings consisted of silly things that were valuable only to me: a piece of sea glass that was smoothed into a triangular shape, a roll of strong twine to loop around Prim's neck and tail to transform her into a weapon, a Vivre Card that Poppy had given to me so that I could always find the island if I wanted to go back, and a simple dagger in a leather sheath. Those things were my only treasures, along with my bronze locket (though of course I only knew that it was bronze because of the descriptions of others).

I placed my treasures in the upper drawer, all except the locket, which I hadn't taken off since the day the women of Amazon Lily found me.

After shrugging out of my jean shorts, I tucked myself into the covers of my bed and let my mind think about that day.

_Sand caked my small and shivering body as I lay on a rocky beach. I woke to the sound of a worried voice, frantically asking me if I was okay. "Little girl? Please wake up – please be okay," the worried voice pleaded to no one._

_I raised my head to face the voice, but still couldn't see anything. At first I thought I had my eyes closed, but a voice in my head spoke clearly to me._

You're blind.

"_Oh, thank goodness you're al – oh my! What happened to your eyes?" the worried voice asked quickly. Somehow my eyes had startled her._

_I didn't know what to say to I repeated the voice in my head with a weak voice, "I'm blind."_

_A warm hand ran two fingers around my eyes but didn't explain why my eyes were so startling. Finally the frantic woman calmed herself down and became more reasonable. She picked me up, her hands tucked beneath my shaking body, and started carrying me somewhere._

_I smelled sweet grass and heard birds chirping happily and figured we were walking through a forest somewhere._

Where was I? How had I gotten here? Where was I before coming to this place?

_My mind could remember nothing of where I had been until I woke on the beach. The only thing my mind knew was that I was blind, this woman was taking me somewhere hopefully to help me, and my name was…_

Sarin.

_The voice spoke to me again. _

_My name was Sarin._

_The woman sighed as she knocked on something. The sound of large doors opening rumbled in my ears, and the woman started speaking to someone else._

"_Where's the doctor? I need her right away!" the woman carrying me said quickly._

"_Uh, she should be at the offices. What's going on?" a voice a little farther away asked._

_But the woman ignored the question and took off, holding me tightly in her hands._

_I was tired and the rhythmic movements of her steps lulled me into unconsciousness._

"_Well we can't just make her leave – she doesn't even know where she came from! That would be cruel," the woman who helped me earlier argued. _

"_She's a stranger – we have no obligation to keep her. What if she's a spy? Men are always looking for a way to get in here, and maybe she's helping them," another angry voice shouted._

_The women were standing just outside my door. I was lying in a soft bed that smelled of flowers. They probably assumed that I was asleep and couldn't hear them – but I could. I pulled my knees to my chest and hugged them tightly._

What if they make me go away? Where will I go?

_I felt hot tears start to run down my cheeks, and didn't bother to rub them away._

_The woman's arguing continued, until they reached a decision._

"_Okay," the unidentified angry voice started, "We'll let her stay on the island, but, Poppy, you are responsible for her. The moment she causes any trouble, or acts suspicious she's gone."_

_The woman who helped me, Poppy, agreed, "Thank you Kikyo. I'll take care of her."_

_The angry woman, Kikyo sighed in frustration, "I'll tell Elder Nyon – she should know our decision."_

_The angry woman stalked off with harsh footsteps on a tiled floor, as the door to my room swung open with a squeak. Poppy's soft steps came toward me, and I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder, "I'm sorry you had to hear that, little one, but I won't let them send you away. Come with me, and I'll get you something to eat – I bet you're hungry!"_

_I nodded slowly, and let her take me into her arms. I rested my head on her shoulder as she carted me away._

My memories must have carried into my sleep, because I woke up with Prim sleeping in a coil on my midsection. I let the darkness envelope me, using my Haki to quickly search the ship. Everyone was still asleep, most of the men snoring so loud I could hear it from all the way on the low deck. I figured it must still be late night or very early morning.

I sighed and tried to let my mind relax and go back to sleep. I vacantly stroked Prim's scales until morning.


	5. Chapter 4

**Yay, new chatper is up! Thank-you to my two reviewers haha shout outs to Elielephant and EiennoKuragari and all that jazz lol I'm glad you like it enough to review!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece and all that stuff - just my OCs and the plot.**

**~Enjoy~**

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><p>~ Chapter 4 ~<p>

The first few days I spent getting to know everyone, and getting used to the layout of the sub. I added a few more names and outlines to my mental folder of crewmates, and got along fairly well with all of them. I tried my best to be of help to Broth, and he didn't seem to complain when I hinted at ingredients to add to his cooking – he would grumble a bit, but in the end add what I had suggested and clap my back in praise.

The men, though often flirtatious and sometimes crude depending on the person, treated me like an equal…I realized that I'd never had that.

The women of Amazon Lily, besides Poppy and Elder Nyon, never treated me like one of them. I was just an outsider; a cause for suspicion. It took them a long time to agree to teach me their ways of Haki, and disapproved quickly when Elder Nyon tried to tweak it to help me see.

On the Island of Women, they used Armament Haki to make their arrows more deadly and powerful – but Elder Nyon knew of a different kind. She explained that she knew a man from her days in exile who had learned to use three different types of Haki – one of which was Kenbunshoku, or Premonition Haki. Elder taught me a tweaked version of the Premonition Haki. With it, I learned to see the vague outlines of people and things – but for some reason I was never able to see the spirits of the living beings like Elder Nyon's friend could. The Elder believed that because I couldn't see like normal people, the colors didn't show up.

I believed myself to be a failure because I couldn't do it right, but Elder Nyon insisted that my version of the Haki would be stronger, even without being able to see the spirits of living things. So she trained me every day for five years, until I could stretch my form of shadowed sight out to a mile in each direction and see everything at once.

I was thankful that the women of Amazon Lily let me live with them for so long, but I would only miss two of the entire population – not even the girls my age had wanted to come near me. Poppy, my foster mother and Elder Nyon, my foster grandmother, were the only people I'd miss…and it pained me that all I had to remember them by were a few trinkets and the memory of their voices. I wished dearly that I could see their faces – if even for a split second.

"So, girl," Broth's gruff voice brought me out of my thoughts. I smiled at the rough kindness in his voice when he called me _girl_ – I would call it a kind of fatherly affection, but I was taking a wild guess since I'd never had an experience with a father. At least not that I remember.

Broth continued, "Have any of the crew been givin' yeh trouble?"

"Nope," I shook my head as I dried a dripping dish with a towel, "Everyone's been nice enough."

"Well, if they do, tell me and I'll knock they're heads off," he laughed heartily.

I nudged him in the side, "Thanks – but I'll be able to handle any problems on my own. Despite my small and scarred appearance, I'm good in a fight."

"I'll hold you to that, Miss Sarin," A voice spoke from the door way.

I hadn't been expecting it – that sneaky Captain of mine sure knew how to startle you. I about dropped the plate from my toweled grip .

I heard his amused laugh, "Didn't mean to startle you."

I muttered something about not paying attention, but he just chuckled more, "Well – I think you'll get the chance to fight sometime soon. We're coming up to a small island, and we've picked up some Marine chatter over the den-den network."

I shifted my weight, "Wouldn't it be best to avoid Marines?"

Law laughed again, "But what fun would that be? We'll be arriving in a few hours, and I'll send you and a few others out as a scouting party – I'll call you to the control room when it's time."

I nodded, "Okay – I'll be ready."

Laws quiet footsteps left Broth and I alone in the kitchen once again and we returned to our dishes.

Broth clicked his tongue, "I hope yeh're as good a fighter as yeh say yeh are – when there are Marines, there's a fight waiting to happen."

I smirked at his statement, "I'm actually hoping there's a fight – my fingers are itching to shoot some things."

"Hah – well get yer itchin' fingers back to drying dishes. Yeh've still got an hour or so before the shootin' starts."

Broth and I finished up the dishes and put everything back in its place. I still had about an hour before we reached the island, so Broth showed me how to start coffee in the morning – I was usually the first one up, besides the Captain who was also an early bird – and then directed me to the small freezer beside the fridge where he kept the raw meat, so I knew where to find it for Prim.

After I memorized how to work the coffee machine and where the shelves were in the freezer, I walked down to my room with a skip of anticipation in my step. It seemed foolish but I was happy about the prospects of battle – maybe not killing so much, but wounding, why not? If they were shooting at us, it was a-okay to start shooting at them.

Once in my room, I wrapped the strong twine around my wrist and hung my satchel over my body.

"Come Prim – into the satchel," I directed with a sweet voice towards my battlesnake. Prim tried to wrap herself around my waist, per usual, but I pushed her into the bag, much to her distaste. "Sorry, girl but having you around my waist would probably be suspicious. I don't want to draw any more unwanted attention than we already will." I said, thinking of the matching jumpsuits that we'd all be wearing. It was a good thing I couldn't see, because they sounded highly unfashionable.

I laughed and touched the course fabric of the jumpsuit that clung to my wrist. It was thin and probably not suitable for winter islands, so I hoped that the island we were heading towards was anything but that.

Bepo's voice echoed thought the speaker system after a light click, "Island is ten minutes away, prepare to break the surface."

I pulled my locket out from the cover of my jumpsuit and felt its familiar cold weight in my fingertips. I traced the delicate design that ran along the edges and thumbed the small latch that opened it. Inside was nothing…no pictures, no writing, no hidden latch, no design. It was completely empty and bare inside.

That first day of consciousness, when I realized that some small weight was hanging around my neck I had hoped that there would be something inside that would jog my memory – but even after both Poppy and Elder Nyon looked at it, they told me it was empty. Probably just a trinket I had found.

I didn't believe that. The locket was a key to my past – I just knew it. And someday I would find out all it had to unlock, no matter what.

I let the locket drop and hang in the center of my breast bone. I zipped my jumpsuit back up to my neck to cover it, and patted Prim's head that stuck out of the satchel. She hissed at me in irritation and I knew she wouldn't forget this for a while. As punishment I knew she'd probably leave her molted skin somewhere unexpected to scare me. I scowled at the snake and headed out of my room.

The ship was starting its upward trip, and my stomach tied itself into a knot. It tingled uncomfortably, but wasn't unpleasant. I gripped the strap of my bag that rested diagonally over my chest and headed up the stairs. I pushed myself into the wall to let the men pass as they took off towards the boilers and engines.

Penguin and Shachi sent me a quick wave and greeting as they passed before running off to their stations. I smiled at the pair who – except for that first day – I had always seen together. They were close friends and cohorts, who were always plotting pranks against the other crew members. They would often come into the galley while I was working to hide from someone, or ask for help with their newest prank.

Aside from being notorious tricksters, they were the best mechanics onboard. When I had any free time I would stop by the engine room where they and Seko all worked. It was interesting just to watch their calculated and somewhat graceful movements when they were tweaking the engines – as if they were performing a manlier version of a ballet.

I snickered at the comparison and took a mental note to tell them that sometime. Once the guys had all passed me, I continued my climb up the winding circular staircase to the control room. Law hadn't called me yet, but I figured I could be there before he called me – I wanted a closer look at the layout of the control room. I hadn't been in there yet except with my displaced vision, and wanted to know what all was entailed in controlling a submarine.

As I opened the hatch-like door that led to the control room I quickly looked to see who was inside. I saw two shadows at the moment, one strange and oddly inhuman, while the other was average with the exception of a puffy pom-pom on top of his head. I laughed and wondered why the crew was so obsessed with hats – maybe they were a way to express individuality while still wearing their uniform.

I shrugged and greeted the two shadows, "Hello, Bepo. Teamer."

The shadow with the pom-pom sticking up from his beanie, Teamer, nodded towards me, while the inhuman shadow, Bepo said in his odd voice, "Hello."

I still hadn't figured it out, and refused to let Broth or any of the guys tell me what he was. I stepped up beside him and placed a hand on his puffy arm. So far I had concluded that he was a talking animal of some sort – this was due to the fuzzy fur and claws I felt on his hands when I had "accidentally" tripped into him and grabbed his hand for support. But as to what animal he was, my choices were left with something large…

Lion was my best guess, but I didn't think that was right. I felt a fierceness to him that I had yet to see, but a lion seemed too intense for his personality.

"We'll be anchored in a few more minutes," Bepo answered me.

"Okay – I just wanted to check out the control room. I've never been here before."

I looked around the room, and watched the different shadows pop out at me. Most of the controls were screens and levers. I watched Teamer as he gripped two handles that were attached to the main boxy mechanical controls. He pushed it this way and that, and I realized that the small handles were the steering mechanism. I turned off my Haki and focused all my attention on the barely detectable movement of the ship. I smiled as I realized Teamer's hand movements corresponded with the ships direction. We were inching upward and forward very slowly.

Bepo pulled down a scope from the ceiling and flipped a switch. In reaction, the switch caused a mechanical _whirring_, and once it stopped Bepo looked into the scope and turned it in each direction.

I shot my Haki out to see a full mile in each direction. I saw the edges of shadowy land just within range of my displaced sight, and noticed an uninhabited harbor about a half-mile to the west of us.

"Head slightly west. There's a good harbor to dock at where we won't be seen," I explained.

Bepo looked at me, and then turned back to his scope. He swiveled it westward and played with a few controls on the scope that were too small for my vision to see. Bepo let out a smiling breath, "She's right. Take us west, Teamer."

Teamer nodded nonchalantly and pushed the small handles to the east. I was about to protest when I felt the ship turning west. I marveled slightly at the controls and wondered how difficult it was to navigate the submarine.

Finally our sub broke the surface of the choppy and ever-changing sea, and we anchored close to a cliff that would provide us with a way to get on land.

Law casually walked into the room, with a large sword propped up against his shoulder. He spotted me quickly and stated, "You're early, Miss Sarin."

I nodded, "Just wanted to see the controls. The sub is fascinating." I focused again on the handles that control the submarine's movements. I could feel him looking at me oddly, but chose to ignore it. The sub was too interesting to be concerned with the normal strange looks I got from people.

I noticed Law nod towards Bepo, who spoke into the speaker system that was built into the wall by the hatch-door that led to the rest of the sub. A light click sounded quickly followed by Bepo's voice, "Jean Bart, Shachi, and Penguin gear up and come to the control room." Bepo's oddly light voice cut off with a click, and after a few minutes, the trio of men came to the control room – Jean Bart was too big to fit inside, so he just stood at the open doorway.

Law addressed us all, "The six of us will be the scouting party." He indicated everyone except for Teamer, who lounged in his chair, his attention half on the controls before him and half on his fingers as he drummed them softly against the steering handles.

Penguin looked to me and then back to Law, "Wait…even Sarin?"

I smiled and Law nodded, "Yes, Miss Sarin will be joining us. She claims to be a good fighter."

I snickered lightly and tried to hide my eagerness to fight. It probably wasn't a good thing that I like to fight so much – and it completely didn't fit with my usual quiet and observing personality – but I couldn't help it. It was like I became a whole different person when on a battlefield.

Though, I had never fought with other humans before, I had been attacked by a pack of large wolves one winter. I had been taking a walk through the surrounding forests to get away from the city, when I wandered into the wolves' territory. I was scared, but found myself smiling as I shot them all down before they could even get close to me. It was a strange sensation, and afterwards I felt dizzy and collapsed into the snow. I woke up a few hours later to find that I was sitting around a fire with some wolf meat roasting. I figured I had been found by someone who started the fire and started cooking the meat, but found only my bare footprints in the snow.

I shook my head of the thought and focused on the small scouting party. I followed Law as he led us out of the control room and out onto the main deck. Bepo walked beside me and as we reached the railing that prevented us from falling into the fidgeting sea, Jean Bart's massive figure jumped with a strange and completely unexpected agility onto the cliff.

Penguin threw him the end of a rope ladder, the other end of which was tied tightly to the railings. Jean Bart held on tightly as Penguin started to climb carefully out onto the rope ladder. It wobbled beneath his weight, but didn't tip him into the sea. It was a very unstable way of getting across, but it had to be done. I took a breath for courage and went next.

My hands and bare feet touched the thick rope, and I climbed cautiously upwards to the cliff top. I could see Jean Bart holding the top of the ladder steady in his large hands while Penguin shouted encouragements to me. "Careful! Yeah – that's it!"

His words didn't help me much, but I let him think he was productive. About halfway to the top my foot slipped, off-setting my balance. The rope ladder tipped me to the side, and I hung on tightly with my hands and toes.

I was hanging upside-down on the ladder, my fingers aching to let go and drop me into the cold waters below. Multiple shouts rang out but I silenced them, "Don't worry – I got it!" I shouted to them.

I swung my body weight to one side and managed to flip myself back upright. I sighed in relief and continued climbing.

After much more wobbling I made it to the top and hopped down onto solid ground. Penguin placed a hand on my shoulder, "You scared me for a second there."

I smirked. "Aww, you were worried. How sweet," I teased. Pen nudged me in the ribs and I continued, "I figure that was pretty good for my first time. Didn't realize how wobbly that thing was."

The others, with more practice under their belts, made it across in just minutes – Law being the quickest to pass. With everyone on land, Jean Bart threw the ladder back on board – getting back on would be easy. All you had to do was run and jump and hope you made it to the deck without twisting an ankle.

We started walking and I heard Prim hiss at me from her bag.

Uh-oh. She was going to be extra mad at me for that – but at least she hadn't fallen out into the water. She stuck her head out of the satchel at my side and chewed on my hand. Prim wasn't poisonous, but her fangs still pierced my skin.

I yanked my hand away with a startled yelp. "Stupid snake," I mumbled, ignoring the glances everyone shot me for my little outburst. I sucked on the fresh and bleeding bites, the metallic taste and smell of blood filling my senses. I shook my head to clear my fuzzying thoughts and followed Law and Bepo as they led the group.


	6. Chapter 5

**Hey! I'm glad everyone's liking this so far - it's going to get even more intersting haha i promise! Anywho, here's the next instalment: Chatper 5**

**Disclaimer: Since my name is not oda, I do not own One Piece. But Sarin is my own Brain-child.**

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><p>~ Chapter 5 ~<p>

The air was cold and crisp, biting the exposed flesh on my face, and the ground was hard and frozen beneath my feet. There wasn't any snow on the ground, but I knew that this was a winter island – or at least a cold fall island. Inwardly I grumbled at my luck and thin jumpsuit. I bit back the shivers that tried to ripple through my body, and tightly clutched the diagonal strap of my satchel for help.

It wasn't long until Law's footsteps ceased as we came to a downward slope that gave us a panoramic view of a city. I used my displaced sight to see the quick paced people scurrying from shop to shop to escape from the cold, warm fires dancing like energetic shadows in fireplaces with children and the elderly gathered around, and bars with hearty drinkers who were oblivious to the cold weather around them. Here at the top of the hill, wind sliced at us like blades, whipping my shoulder-length hair at my numbed face. The tip of my small braid hit me in the eye and I grabbed at it in frustration.

We started downward, and I grabbed onto Bepo for support. I felt his puffy fur beneath the sleeve of his jumpsuit and was instantly jealous of his warm fur coat. The ground was slippery, but with my grip on Bepo I managed to stay upright without slipping. I may have good reflexes, but that meant nothing when the ground was working against you, looking for any way to smack you in the face.

Once at the base of the hill, I could see more of the large town – and even the small Marine base at the very edge. It was filled with a drowsy sort of energy – the soldiers were moving sluggishly, no one but the men on patrol seemed to be doing anything worth-while, and the supposed men in charge were all lounging in a cozy office near a fire.

I snorted, "Well, there's a small Marine base on the other side of town, but they don't look like they'll put up much of a good fight."

"How can you tell?" Law asked amusedly.

I shrugged, "They're all lagging around, doing nothing. They've got a good amount of soldiers on patrol, but they all seem to have grown soft."

"Hmm – well that's no fun. Shachi, go back to the ship and tell Teamer to pull the sub right up to their main docks. I want them to see our ship." Law shifted his nodachi to his other shoulder and slouched against a nearby pine tree.

Shachi nodded and took off up the hill, trying his best not to slip and slide back down to the base. He finally managed to scramble over the top and disappear from sight. It would take a while for him to get back to the ship and get it into position, so Law told us to split up.

"Stock up on supplies, and meet back here within an hour. Miss Sarin, I'd have you stick with Bepo, since you're still new," Law directed.

I nodded and stood at Bepo's side, determined to learn the routine as quickly as possible. The group small group scattered themselves throughout the town, and I followed Bepo. "So what do we need to do?"

Bepo looked down at me for a moment and then seemed to think. He scratched the back of his head and scanned the empty street we had wandered onto. Though the street was empty, it was far from quiet. Hearty shouts and laughter came from a small building half-way down the road, loud and echoing clinks came from what I assumed to be a blacksmith's shop, and even from this far away I could hear the crash of waves on a seaside cliff.

"We need to look for a medical center. We're low on medicines and a few other things," Bepo answered. He took off at a slow and observant pace.

I sent out my displaced vision to search for such a building. I ran my shadowy sight through each building in the relatively small town, spotting Law talking to the butcher inside a shop filled with meets, and Penguin chatting up some woman with dramatic curves in a bar. I smirked, but found no medical type building.

I searched through the Marine base once again, paying closer attention. On the first floor I found the hospital ward – even from the shadowy outlines I could tell what it was. Beds lined up in neat rows, nurses scurrying from occupied bed to occupied bed – my vivid senses imagined smelling the harsh antiseptic and revolting cleanliness.

"The only medical place is at the Marine base," I told the talking animal ahead of me. I jogged a few steps to catch up.

"Really?" Bepo asked, sending a glance towards the direction of the Marine base, "Captain will be glad to hear that."

I laughed, "So now what?"

"Hmmm…"

I waited for him to answer, but it looked like he didn't have one. "We could go to that bar – Penguin's there already."

Bepo's weight shifted on his feet – or paws, actually. "Too many people," he said, his strange high voice sounding strained and slightly nervous.

I thought for a moment and then mumbled to myself, "Yeah maybe not the bar – watching Penguin flirt with girls isn't my first choice of entertainment."

Bepo started walking again and I followed him. It didn't really matter where went anyways – as long as I kept moving I couldn't freeze into a human glacier.

His foot-paws, which he had shoved into black boots for some reason, walked noisily on the frozen ground. We snaked through the streets, hearing much of the same as we went. Eventually we came upon Jean Bart who was carrying a barrel on each shoulder.

He nodded towards us, but passed silently as he headed in the direction of the base of the hill we had come down from. We had only spent a good twenty minutes and had a lot of time left before the Captain said we had to meet up.

"We could probably just go back to the rendezvous point and wait," I suggested.

He looked down at me, "But you're cold…"

I shrugged, "I've handled much worse."

"We should get you some warmer clothes," Bepo said lightly.

"Do we have money for that?" I asked, "I don't want to waste what we should spend on supplies."

Bepo shook his head, "It's fine. We don't have to buy medical supplies now, so we have extra."

I pursed my lips, "Well, alright then – you'll have to tell me what the clothes look like, though."

Bepo nodded okay.

We scoured the town once again until we found a shop that sold clothes. Both Bepo and I felt out of place – I, because I couldn't see anything the woman was trying to sell me, and Bepo because he was a different species, and probably didn't know the first thing about clothes besides the jumpsuit he wore.

Finally Bepo helped me pick out a thick long sleeved shirt, that was supposedly the color of purple (though I had no idea the difference of colors) to go beneath my jumpsuit, warm leggings that the woman said were plain black, and a fluffy jacket.

The jacket fit nicely and immediately started to warm up my body. We bought the clothes and the store clerk let me change into them in a back room. With my new leggings, shirt and jacket pulled on beneath my jumpsuit, I came back out into the store, carrying the clothes I had been previously wearing beneath my jumpsuit that had been doing a horrible job of keeping me warm – jean shorts and a T-shirt.

"I like the jacket," Bepo said happily as we left the store.

"What does it look like? It's very warm," I said snuggling deeper into the fluffy interior.

"Uh, white with spotty patterns on it," He answered.

I nodded, "Cool – I bet it looks nice."

We worked our way through the vacant streets and headed towards the base of the hill where we were supposed to meet up. Jean Bart so far was the only one there. He was leaning against a small tree that was starting to buckle beneath his massive body frame. He grunted a greeting to us as we neared him.

Bepo and I sat on the cold ground beside him, and the three of us waited.

It was quiet, but not uncomfortable. Silences never bothered me. I listened to the cold wind wash through the trees. I could almost feel the cry of the needled trees as they were whipped and thrown about, this way and that, by the cruel whims of the wind.

I found my thoughts once again traveling back to Amazon Lily. It had been a truly nice place, even if the people weren't. Warm weather most of the year, the changing of the seasons only evident by smell. Spring was flowery and wonderful, like a subtle perfume. Summer smelt of warmth and sunlight, soft and enticing. Autumn was crisp, smelling of apples and sweet grass. Winter had a sharp smell, the pine trees filling the air with their distinct scent.

Footsteps broke up the delicious memory, and my shadowy sight revealed Penguin's slight frame and large hat nearing us.

He waved at us all – obviously noting that the Captain wasn't there, or else his greeting would have been nothing more than the wave, "Hey guys! How'd you –" but the rest of his words were lost in laughter. Deep and echoing laughs escaped from his mouth out into the frigid air.

Finally a few words managed to stumble from the mess of laughter, "What the hell are you wearing?" Penguin got out as he dissolved into more laughter.

I drew my brows in at him, "What? It's a jacket."

Penguin laughed some more and managed, "You've got leopard spots."

Beside me Bepo lowered his head, "Sorry."

I ignored the talking animal's apology, "It keeps me warm – it doesn't matter what it looks like."

"Oh, if you could see yourself, you'd me laughing along with me."

"If I could see anything I probably would have smacked you by now," I grumbled.

I saw another shadowy figure walking up the hill. I recognized his stride immediately.

Law stepped to Penguin's side like the shadow that I saw him as and spoke suddenly, knowing he'd startle his crewmate. "What's so funny?"

Penguin, who should have been used to his Captain's light feet by now, jumped about a foot in the air. He looked up at his Captain, the laughing smile still on his face, "Oh, I was just," he held in a snicker, "admiring Sarin's jacket."

Law looked down to my place on the ground. I could feel his icy gaze even in all the cold weather that surrounded me, "I see you let Bepo pick that out for you."

Again our talking animal crewmate lowered his head and apologized but no one paid him much attention.

I scrunched my nose in Penguin's direction, "Well, I like it. I don't care how ridiculous it looks, it's nice and fuzzy inside."

Finally putting the subject of my apparently unfashionable jacket aside, Bepo broke the news to Law about the only medical facility being inside the Marine base.

"Great," Law said with his smirk, "Now we have an excuse to attack them – it's not like they'd let us go in there and buy any supplies. We have no choice but to attack." Law seemed to me thinking aloud, so no one answered him.

Captain turned to the rest of us, "Let's take what we've got and dump it at the ship."

Our group headed down to the island's main docks where we would meet the sub and the rest of the crew. Law and Jean Bart were in the lead discussing what Bart had gotten in town, closely followed by Bepo, who was carrying Law's nodachi while Law had his hands full with one of the barrels Bart had been carrying earlier.

"This town didn't seem to have much," Penguin said, his laughing attack finally subdued. We were walking slightly behind everyone else.

I glanced sharply over at him, "Did the woman at the bar tell you that?"

"Wa-how'd you know where I was?" he asked slightly in shock.

I gave him a short laugh and a tormenting smirk, "I can see everything – remember that."

He shook his head and laughed, "You're creepy, you know that?"

"Yep," I said proudly.

* * *

><p>Law, who'd had no problem with the leopard spots considering his favorite jeans had the same design, smirked as he watched Sarin get teased by the rest of the crew. She just waved off the laughter and continued helping Penguin carry one of the barrels down to the storage room on the low level.<p>

The Surgeon of Death prepared his crew for a battle. Their bright yellow submarine was docked in plain sight of the Marine base for anyone who happened to look towards the harbor. Even if the Marines were lazy as Sarin had guessed, they wouldn't be able to ignore the signature yellow submarine of the rookie Heart Pirates – especially if wanted pirates started to attack the Marine base.

He laid his nodachi against his lean shoulder and waited for the rest of his crew to gather. They were geared up before him, weapons in their hands and giddy smiles on their faces – he found that even Miss Sarin was smiling eagerly.

Perhaps she would fit in here more than he first thought.

His eyes smiled at his crew, "Let's go then."

* * *

><p>I was ready. My jacket zipped up tightly to my neck, my quiver of arrows on my back, and Prim held stiff in my hand, twine already wrapped over her neck and tail. I also wore my empty satchel, just in case I needed it. I figured that in battle, anything could happen.<p>

I smiled inwardly as well as outwardly at the word battle.

Finally I'd get to fight, and prove my worth to the crew and Captain. They'd see that I could be useful, despite my weak appearance.

Elder Nyon always said I had a strong heart – and heart was what you needed more than brawn.

I hoped her words were true as the crew walked along the outer edges of the town. Law might be deemed the Doctor of Death, or whatever, but he at least was decent enough not to drag uninvolved innocents into his fight. We avoided the town and made our way around to the base.

I guess they finally saw our sub parked directly in their view, because as I sent my reaching sight forward and into the base I could see them scrambling in a panic, getting everything ready for a fight.

My smile faltered as I noticed cannons on a balcony in the upper levels. They were aiming with the three black barrels right towards our sub.

In an instant they went off, one right after the other, sending black cannonballs right towards the harbor.

But I wouldn't give them the chance to destroy our ship. In just as quick an instant, I pulled an arrow from my quiver and shot it towards one of the cannonballs. The Armament Haki I sent with the arrow collided with the cannon, causing it to explode in mid-air.

I was vaguely aware of my crewmates' eyes watching me, but I still had two more cannonballs to shoot down. I took another arrow and shot it, as quick as a breath, and sent another right after it, both laced with Busoshoku.

The remaining cannonballs exploded as the first one, raining down shadowy smoke and shards of cannonball onto the town.

"They're going to shoot again!" I called out, eyeing the cannon balcony. The soldiers in there were very confused, "And if they're smart they'll have noticed our position from the direction of my arrows."

Law nodded and directed everyone to hurry to the gates. He hung back until he was beside me, "Can you take out their cannons from this distance?"

I scrunched my nose in thought, "Pretty sure."

He nodded towards me, "Catch up once you've taken them out."

"Okay, Captain!" I said as I pulled another of my arrows out from my quiver.

As I predicted, the cannons were now being aimed in my general direction. I had to shoot quick before they fired. I aimed for the barrels, and accounted for the cursing wind.

Wind is the enemy of the archer, but if the archer is skilled enough, they can use the wind to further their shots. I tried to do this. Sure I wasn't the best archer in the world – but I was pretty damned good.

I leased my notched arrow, sending out Busoshoku with it. I watched and saw the arrow take its mark, sliding into the barrel of the first black cannon and exploding upon impact. I smiled and aimed for the second.

They now knew what I was trying to do, and thought they could stop me. By the time they thought to shoot the second cannon, I had already taken my shot.

As they pulled the string that would set off the cannon, my Busoshoku arrow hit the insides of their machine, and the thing exploded with enough energy to take down all of the soldiers on the balcony, some even tumbling off and falling for the frozen ground below.

But unluckily for me, the third cannon had been shot amidst all the noise and ruckus. It was halfway to me when I finally noticed it.

I quickly notched an arrow and shot at it, but my Haki hadn't been aligned right and it only clipped it.

It was enough to send it off of its direct path, but the cannonball still came hurtling towards the ground.

It hit a couple yards away from me, the explosion sending me flying onto my back. I felt a sting in my side and warmth seeping from my body. The metallic smell of blood flooded my senses and just before a wave of darkness overtook me, I managed to shoot off one last arrow to destroy the remaining cannon. If I was going to pass out before the battle even begun, I was at least going to have helped.

Dizziness from the blast of the exploding cannonball and the intense smell of blood in my overly-sensitive nose drove me to more darkness. I passed out on the cold ground, the sounds of battle ringing in the distance and the smell of blood veiling me.


	7. Chapter 6

**So here's the next installment lol i had a lot of fun writing this one xD lots of crazy goryness (sort of). Anyways i hope you like it.**

**Oh and Thanks so much for the reviews! I'm glad everyone's liking this so far, despite my probably many spelling/typo errors and gramatical ticks lol Shout-out time!**

**HarunoMarina: **Thanks! It really made my day to read that 3 I"m glad you like Sarin so much!

**Elielephant: **The calm belt can have seasons (ie. the island Luffy trained on had different seasons every week - i've watched the show too much haha) lol and I'm glad you like my descriptions! It's been really challenging to write from a blind PoV but it's been really fun to do. It has also been a great test of my writing power lol Much thanks for all your reviews!

**UnperfectButLovingIt: **I will I will I will! lol

**MusicOfMadness: **She hears your sympathies lol

**EinnoKuragari: **Thanks! I'm glad I'm not making her into a Mary Sue or anything like that xD and I'll try very soon lol

**Disclaimer: I do not own one piece of One Piece.**

**~Enjoy~**

* * *

><p>~ Chapter 6 ~<p>

Gray smoke billowed from where the cannonball hit as the sound of clanging metal floated into the air from the nearby battle at the Marine base gates. Penguin stared at the source of the rising plume and felt frozen in place. That was where Sarin had been.

Penguin had hung back, realizing that Law had told her to take out the cannonballs all by herself. Sure Penguin had faith in her – she had proved what good aim she had even when under pressure by taking out all three cannonballs that were headed towards the docked sub – but she was still a new recruit…and a young girl at that. He figured that waiting for her to catch up wouldn't be such a bad thing – and then they could descend into the real battle together.

But as the unnerving gray smoke rose from the place she had just been minutes ago, Penguin felt something hit the floor of his stomach. Finally his legs unfroze and he started off at a quick jog towards her. As he rose to the top of a small incline in the path skirting the forest area, he saw the top of her head peeking steadily upward from the other side.

He let out a small sigh of relief and skidded into a walk, his feet almost losing balance on the frozen ground. "What took you so long? Get scared by a little explosion?" Penguin called to her, planting a jocular smirk on his face.

But as her face appeared over the incline he noticed something wrong…no, felt something wrong. He stopped and watched her as she became fully visible on the tippy top of the small hill. There was definitely something wrong with her…and it wasn't the black shard of cannonball that had ripped into the right side of her leopard print jacket and into the flesh beneath. Crimson was dripping around the large shard, and some of it had smeared.

She dipped her fingers into the running blood, and then smeared her red tinted digits down the puffy sleeves of her jacket. Sarin was muttering as she repeated this motion several times, but she was still too far away for him to hear.

As Sarin came just feet away from where Penguin stood, frozen to the ground once again he tried to call out to her, "Sarin? Hey – are you alright? That wound doesn't look pretty."

But she ignored his cautious words and continued her mutterings, this time close enough for the man in the large hat to hear her clearly. "Blood smells better now. Those cold voices. The cold voices always make it smell sick. They change it. But my blood smells better now. Smells like me. All those cold voices. Such far voices. Always the pain and cold and sick blood."

She passed by Penguin without so much as a glance, her strange words repeating and falling into the strong wind as if hoping the intended hearers would catch them and become aware of her. In her glazed over amber eyes, there was a fierce narrowness that he'd never seen before. Usually when looking at her eyes, you noticed the scars that ran from the outer tips of her eyebrows, across her delicate eyelids (imprinting faint black lines through the eyelid and onto the faint and almost pink amber irises and whites of her eyes), and stopping once it reached the bridge of her nose – but now, the blacks of her pupils were narrowed, as if being pinched by the surrounding colored irises.

Sarin stopped, cocked her head to the side, and listened, ceasing her mutterings for a few seconds. She seemed to taste the air, as if taking up characteristics of her snake Prim who was cowering in the satchel that hung diagonally across her chest. Prim poked her blue and purple head out of the lid ever-so-slightly and gazed up at Sarin.

Penguin swore he could see fear in the snake's eyes as it retreated back into the dark safety of the satchel.

Finally Sarin let out a sharp breath that resembled a snake-like hiss and then spoke in a strained and flighty voice that didn't seem to belong to the girl Penguin had been getting to know over the past week. "They're up ahead. Sounds of battle. The cold voices must be there. The cold…cold voices. Will they tell me what they've done?"

She was silent now, a wide grin stretching tightly across her paled lips. With pointed steps, her bare feet started forward again, following the sounds of the fight.

Penguin didn't like the look on Sarin's face, or the strange voice coming from her mouth. He followed a gut instinct – one of preservation, though he didn't stop to ponder why it was kicking in around his friend – and darted around her to get to the battle scene ahead of the two of them.

He needed to find Law…He was a doctor. He must know what was going on with her. She was either delusional or possessed by some demon, he thought. Those were the only two explanations that would come to his mind.

Penguin tried to laugh at his "possession" thought that kept recurring as he tried to think of reasons for Sarin's strange behavior, but it quite accurately described the situation. He knew it wasn't a possession…or, he thought he knew it anyways.

Finally he darted down the hill into the enemy territory. Already, Law and the rest of the Heart Pirates were well into the main gate and right at the left entrance that would lead them to a straight hallway that took them right to the medical ward. Penguin hopped over bodies – some with displaced limbs, or limbs that were stuck to the strangest of places (a signature of the Surgeon of Death, himself), while others were bloodied and unconscious – and followed the clangs, shouts, and gunfire that were the essence of battle.

His crew had faired very well – Sarin's guess at the Marine's being lazy seemed to hit right on target. All of them were standing, though a few had some minor injuries that would moan in the morning and howl by the end of the next day.

Penguin scanned the crew as they fought on the steps up towards the door, looking for his Captain somewhere in the midst.

Finally he heard Law's cool and calculated voice as it sent out commands to raid the infirmary. About half of the crew split up and ran into the rest of the building, while the other half remained behind. Unfortunately, Law disappeared into the building along with the first group before Penguin could catch up. As he reached the steps he found Shachi and grabbed onto his friend's arm.

"Pen? Hey, where were you?" Shachi asked, turning to Penguin.

Penguin panted and then pointed at the hill, "Sarin – there's something wrong with her."

"What?" Shachi asked, his eyes widening, "Is she hurt?" He made to step down from the steps, but Penguin held him in place.

"She is, but that's not the problem. We need Law…"

Shachi stared at the hill where Penguin had indicated and then glanced down at his friend, "I'll go get him – stay with Sarin until he gets there."

Penguin nodded. Shachi tore out of his friend's grip and darted into the building.

As he glanced at the hill beyond the gates, Penguin could see Sarin's fiery red head coming into view…and three Marine soldiers heading in her direction.

The soldiers looked as if they were trying to retreat away from the bloody battlefield.

Penguin ran towards the scene, but listened to his gut feeling and ducked behind the iron gate of the base for cover. All of his logic and reason was telling him to stay out of Sarin's way until she was back to her normal self. This different Sarin seemed fractured and dangerous – and he didn't want to find out how much so.

The soldiers spotted the girl as she descended from the hill. One of them spoke out, "Get away from here, girl! Pirates are attacking!"

Sarin stopped halfway down the hill at the sound of the soldier's voice and cocked her head to the left. "You are Marines?"

They shifted on their feet and the one who spoke answered, "Yes – now for your own safety you should – "

Sarin's flighty and tense voice interrupted him, "Then you know where the cold voices are. Tell me. The cold voices are near."

The three soldiers looked between each other and Penguin heard one of them whisper, "Must be a mental case."

"I'm sorry," The one who spoke earlier answered again, "But we don't know who these cold voices are."

Sarin's nose scrunched. Penguin knew this habit to be one she made when she thought about something, but at the moment it looked to be an indication of anger. Her lips formed a thin line and her jaw tightened.

"Marines work with the cold voices. You know where they are!" Her strange voice rose in sound and then she screamed, "TELL ME!"

The Marines, frightened that the girl would bring the attention of the pirates back to them as they were trying to escape, stepped towards the girl.

"Shh – don't yell. We don't know where the cold voices are. We've never heard of them."

But Sarin wasn't listening to them. She held out her right hand – palm facing the sky, fingers splayed and stretched out as far as they would go. Her voice broke into piercing laughter. It rang through the air, and turned the heads of everyone in the vicinity. Chills ran down the spines of the Marine's and Penguin, who was still out of Sarin's view.

While laughing, a stretched smile forming over the better half of her face, she spoke. "Then you can wait for them below. They'll meet you soon. The cold voices will pay."

With that, she suddenly squeezed her splayed hand into a tight fist.

The three Marine's were suddenly nothing more than gallons of blood decorating the immediate area. All three of them had imploded into nothing but blood.

Sarin's voice was still laughing as she licked her bloodstained lips. She hummed, "You're blood tastes rotten. Marine blood is broken."

Penguin stared at her in shock. Blood splatter dotted her entire front – face, jacket, arms, legs – everything was layered in crimson dots, the marine blood mixing with her own and becoming indiscernible.

Her nose scrunched again, but not in anger. She raised her hands and tried to wipe the blood from her face, but her palms were just as bloody and only resulted with more blood smearing around her face, ruining the droplet forms that speckled her cheeks and brow like freckles.

"Sick blood," she muttered only loud enough for Penguin to hear. She sank to her knees and then collapsed face-first into the pools of Marine blood that were forming on the frozen ground.

The crew that had seen the entire display just stared at the ground where she lay unconscious for the time being.

Penguin forced himself to stand up from his place crouched behind the gate and walked with careful steps towards her. His whole body was shaking as he forced out a whisper, "Sarin?"

She didn't stir except for the barely noticeable movements of her breathing lungs. Her torso moved up and down in small bits. Penguin stood near her, but couldn't get himself to touch her. After seeing three men implode because of a simple hand movement, he was afraid to be even this close to her.

With everyone frozen in place, movement from the door of the Marine base was very noticeable. Law followed closely by Bepo, Shachi and the rest of the crew came out into the silent stillness.

Law looked around and followed everyone's frozen gazes towards the gate of the marine base. His facial expression fought between a smirk and a frown. Smirk because there was so much blood – wonderful crimson pooled on the ground; Frown because it was one of his crewmates lying in the midst of it.

There was too much blood pooled around her to be all hers, and though she was pale, she wasn't pale enough to be drained completely of her life blood. His frown gave way to a light smirk as he realized what wasn't dead. He let himself enjoy the scene.

The Death Doctor spotted Penguin standing a foot away from her unmoving body. He was staring down at her, his hands shaking at his sides.

Shachi said that Penguin had been keeping an eye on her – said that Penguin told him that something was wrong with their newest crewmate.

"Get back to the ship. Cut through town," Law commanded stoically to his frozen subordinates.

Upon hearing their Captain's orders they spurred themselves into movement, picking up crates and boxes from the half of the crew that had raided the infirmary. As they left the gates with their hands full, they did their best to skirt around the girl lying in blood.

Whatever had happened, it had the entire crew freaked out, Law mused. He was slightly disappointed that he had missed whatever display of power that the girl had shown

Penguin didn't move from his spot beside her. He felt bad for not moving her out of the Marine blood, remembering that she said it smelled bad, but couldn't convince his muscles to listen to his request.

Captain, Bepo and Shachi brought up the rear and stopped beside Penguin.

"What happened?" Law asked as he crouched by Sarin's head. With his tattooed hand he pushed aside her hair and revealed a pale patch of skin on her neck that had avoided the blood splatter. He felt her pulse with two fingers.

Penguin started his explanation, "I saw a cannonball hit the ground where we had left her so I hung back to see if she was okay. She started coming up the hill, but she was acting strange. She had a wound on her side – part of a cannonball had lodged in her skin above her hip – but that didn't seem to bother her. She was mumbling about cold voices and the smell of her blood…she had a strange look on her face too…she was creepy."

"Tell me about these pools of blood," Law said calmly, trying to get Penguin to focus his explanation.

"Oh – sorry – three marines crossed her path. They were running from the fight and told her to leave. She asked them where the cold voices were and when they didn't know what she was talking about she held out her hand and then made a fist…and then all that was left of them was their blood. It was like they imploded." Penguin suppressed a shutter and mimicked Sarin's deadly hand movement. "Does she have some sort of Devil Fruit power that we don't know about?"

Law didn't answer. It was possible she had a Devil Fruit power – but if what she said was true about not remembering anything before Amazon Lily, it was entirely possible that she didn't know about it.

The small group around the bloody girl stood in silence, all lost in their own thoughts.

Bepo sniffed the air and noticed something. "She smells weird," he stated in his odd voice.

Law looked up to his first mate, "Care to elaborate?"

"It's not her normal smell. Usually she smells like oak trees and rain, but now…there's a weird chemical smell to her," Bepo explained. "It's fading, but I can still smell it."

Law gazed down at the girl again. He would have to wait for her to wake up again to make any accurate guesses as to what was ailing her – but he had a few vague ideas.

"Let's get her back to the ship. I'll examine her closer once we're well away from here," Law stated as he stood from his crouch. Lifting his nodachi with ease to rest on his shoulder, he started towards the submarine.

Shachi, Penguin and Bepo all exchanged looks, silently deciding who was going to carry her.

Bepo could smell the fear still surrounding Penguin and the uncertainty coming off of Shachi, so he wordlessly bent and picked the girl up. Blood dripped from her limp body as Bepo carried her after Law. Shachi and Penguin followed silently, neither of them voicing the relief they felt knowing that they didn't have to carry Sarin all the way back to the ship.

* * *

><p>Bepo sat in the sick bay with the bloody girl, waiting for the Captain to come and take a look at her. He felt the ship sinking lower and lower into the depths of the ocean, but knew they'd have a little ways to go before straightening out their course.<p>

The fuzzy white bear sniffed the air. Sarin smelled normal again – if you excluded the mask of blood that almost drowned out her oaky scent.

Suddenly Sarin let out a grown and turned her head. She wasn't waking up, but her eyes seemed to flutter beneath her scarred lids. Her pale lips parted and she let out a few breathy words, "Blood is broken."

The bloody girl fell back into her deep unconsciousness and didn't say any more. Bepo pondered the words and sniffed the air again, this time focusing on the blood.

He could tell that some of the blood was different – that it came from different sources – but aside from that, it all smelled like normal blood: metallic and warm.

If she could smell differences in blood, she had a much better sense of smell than him, he thought.

Finally the bear heard Law's quiet footsteps drawing closer to the door to the sick bay.

When the door slid open to reveal his Captain, Bepo stood up and faced him.

Law gave a nod to Bepo but his gaze immediately landed on Sarin as she lay on the table. "Has anything happened?" Law asked coolly.

Bepo looked down at Sarin as well, "She muttered about broken blood, but fell back into deep unconsciousness."

Law nodded and stepped to her side, pulling on a pair of blue surgical gloves that he always kept in his pocket. He pulled them on tight and let go of them with a snap. The captain smiled at the familiar feeling of the restricting latex, and went to work pulling off the bloody clothes from the girl.

He shed her of her bloodstained jacket, and her now violently crimson jumpsuit.

Now he could see a black shard of cannonball sticking out of her side. He carefully peeled the purple long-sleeved shirt from her torso and exposed the injured flesh. The shard had really torn into her side, but it looked to have missed all of the internal organs in the area.

He made an experimental cut with a thin scalpel blade just beside the wound. Law looked over to see her unresponsive.

Good, he thought, I won't have to waste any drugs on her – she's too unconscious to feel any of this.

He immediately went to work on removing the black shard that had done the damage, and then inspecting her insides to make sure there was no internal bleeding. A smile hung on his lips and was reflected in his icy blue eyes. With his long fingers he pushed aside her intestines and probed the edge of her left kidney. He neither saw nor felt any discrepancies and was slightly disappointed that he had to close up her wound so quickly.

With a warm cloth handed to him by his first mate, he wiped away the excess blood still seeping from the wound, and then progressed to cleaning it with alcohol.

Presumably at the strong smell of the rubbing alcohol, Sarin started to stir again.

Law stitched up her side quickly and wrapped a bandage around her middle.

The Surgeon of Death looked down at the girl, some insanity still lingering in his eyes from the bloody battlefield they had left in their wake. Lying exposed on his cold metal operating table, her chest rose and fell lightly with her breaths. His sadistic side wanted to push down on her lungs and count how quickly it would take her to wake up in an oxygen-deprived panic.

He didn't of course – he had just gone through the trouble of patching her up. His handiwork would have been a waste.

But the thought made him smile nonetheless.

He turned to his first mate, "Bepo would you clean her up for me? Though blood does look nice on her, it isn't really sanitary."

Bepo nodded and used a damp cloth to wipe away the blood from her face and arms. As the bear carefully lifted her back from the metal table to make sure there were no blood splatters on her back, he noticed some strange scars. "Captain?" Bepo asked, "Look at these…"

Law looked over to his fuzzy first mate and came to his side. He looked down to where Bepo's paw was pointing.

On the back of the girl's neck, right where her skull and spine met was a strange pink circle of scar tissue. It was about two centimeters in diameter. The circle was filled in with wrinkled scar tissue and looked like it had once been very raw and cut up at one point.

Further down her spine were old incision marks, forming X's over different vertebra in her spine.

They tipped her body so she was completely on her side and saw one more scar just above the low waist band of her black leggings. This one was a patch of skin just below the small of her back that looked as if it had been stuck with needles over and over again.

"What are these?" Bepo's high voice asked.

Law's brow drew inward, "Nothing good, I imagine." He ran a finger – now gloveless and bloodless – over the different scars, lingering particularly on the circular one on her neck. That one seemed slightly familiar to him, though he couldn't remember the particular procedure that caused it. He would have to look it up in one of his many medical books.

They set her back down, both pondering the strange scars on her back.


	8. Chapter 7

**Hey there! Chapter seven is now up for your reading pleasure (or so I like to think lol) Anyways, sorry if it seems to jump around a little bit - I had a lot of different people i wanted to follow around lol**

**So here you go ~Enjoy!~**

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><p>~ Chapter 7 ~<p>

Darkness. I was awake, but my shadowy vision wasn't cooperating with me. My body was drained of energy, forcing me to rely only on my remaining four senses.

Besides my own, there was another set of breaths somewhere nearby. They were quiet and shallow, and accompanied by the familiar scratching sound of pencil on paper.

I took in a deep breath, the mixture of smells and tastes in the air immediately told me where I was…the sick bay. I groaned inwardly and resorted to shifting my body about to check for injuries.

My fingers twitched lightly, my arms twisted and bent in different directions, my legs turned and my knees bent. My limbs seemed to be in working condition, but as I shifted my torso to the right, my left side stung sharply.

I sucked in a sharp breath and quickly straightened out my body to lessen the strain I put on my injury. As I lifted a hand to touch the wound, an icy voice spoke from where the quiet breaths had emanated. "Don't tear your stitches. It's only been an hour since the operation."

I let out a slow breath at Law's words, "Damn. I passed out, didn't I…"

I heard him shift in his seat in the corner of the room. "What do you remember?"

My nose scrunched in thought, "A cannon got past me. I hit it, but I only managed to throw it of course. A shard of it lodged in my side and I passed out just after releasing one more arrow at the last cannon."

"And after that?" Law asked further.

"After?" I questioned, "Didn't I pass out? After that all I remember is darkness…and a voice…" I finished slowly. I barely realized what I had said until the words had left my lips.

A voice. Yeah – there was a voice in all the darkness…a strange one.

Law stood from his seat, his light steps coming closer to me. "What did the voice say?"

I shook my head, "Nothing…it was just screaming – or no, that's not right…it was laughing?" My thoughts felt fuzzy and thick. Exhaustion was catching up to me.

Law stopped at my side and stared down at me – his gaze boring into me and causing my cold skin to prickle. I realized at that moment that I was lying on his table in nothing but my bra and leggings. I really should have been embarrassed or shy, but when you can't see, indecency doesn't really affect you.

"You were the one laughing," He said in his calm and slightly infuriating voice.

I shook my head violently, ignoring a wince of pain that rippled from my injured side, "No – that voice wasn't mine! I've never heard it before, and trust me, I never forget a voice." My fists clenched and I felt my cheeks heat up. I was getting worked up much too quickly. Exhaustion didn't suit me well.

Law didn't rise to my defenses, but instead took a few steps to a counter nearby. I heard him messing with something that I couldn't quite make out without my shadowy sight, and a few seconds later felt one of his large and strangely soft hands wrapping around my lean bicep. A sharp pinprick pinched the bend of my arm.

I took in a sharp breath. "A shot?" I asked weakly.

The pinprick was replaced by a cold cotton swab that reeked of rubbing alcohol.

"Yes," he answered, "To help you sleep."

I could feel my senses dulling and the medicine working its way through my veins. My brain shut down all conscious thought and soon I was drifting in the ever-present darkness that defined my life.

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><p>Just before she dropped off the ledge into unconsciousness, she spoke in a childish and distant voice, "Sleep is just more darkness…always so much darkness."<p>

Sarin lay eerily still, her chest rising slightly with breath. Law watched her silently for a moment before letting his brain revert back to the topic of her scars. He had been writing into a journal when she had woken up. On the once blank paper, there was now a cramped and an almost readable scrawl that spelled out his thoughts:

_It seems that wherever she was before Amazon lily, they had been constantly injecting her with unidentified substances. As Penguin reported, she said while in her strange-state that the "Cold Voices" always made her "blood smell sick". I'm guessing blood transfusions or else human medical testing. The circular scar on her neck and the X marks on her spine indicate that some sort of spinal tap had been put in place, or that they were experimenting on her central nervous system. These are all just educated guesses – though I doubt whoever did this to her was doing it for her own health._

_The most likely guess is human experimentation, though as to what they could have been doing to her, there is no way to tell. We'll just have to wait and see what she recalls later on._

_Regarding her strange state after she had passed out, I have two hypotheses. First, her mind could have entered a dream state where some old reality had been brought up from her forgotten past. It is possible that she lost control of herself and let a dazed state of mind take the lead. Second, she could have split personality syndrome, or schizophrenia. Though I've never encountered this particular mental problem before, that doesn't mean it isn't likely. Depending on her past, she could have fractured her mind, locking away all bad memories and letting herself start out with a blank slate. If this is true, then something must have caused her other personality, or mind-set to take over. Maybe it was the loss of consciousness, or the injury._

Law ran a finger over his cramped handwriting and then closed his medical journal. The blue leather-bound journal was about half filled with his writings on various medical observations he had made over the years, and Sarin's case was turning out to be very journal-worthy.

He tucked the journal onto a shelf above the sink, and stretched out his legs.

"Bepo?" he asked, his mind still distracted by the thoughts of Sarin's scars, "Are you still outside?"

The door to the medical room slid open, revealing his first mate in a bloodstained orange jumpsuit. "Captain?" he asked.

"Take Miss Sarin to her room," Law said after sliding a white smock over her bare and bandaged torso, "And then take her bloody things to the laundry room." Law pressed his spare key that unlocked the door to her room into Bepo's padded paw and then strolled out of the room with his hands in his pockets.

Behind him he heard Bepo carrying the girl out of the infirmary and down the stairs, his feet thumping quietly on the metal floors. Law mused for a moment – it was funny how quickly that bear could shed his boots once he got onto the submarine, but he'd never leave the sub without them. It was definitely a strange quirk of his, but just one of many.

Law entered into the navigation room and spotted Teamer at the controls. His fingers ceaselessly drummed out some unidentifiable beat, as he directed the ship forward and downward.

"What's our depth?" Law asked his best navigator.

Teamer's head turned to a screen to his left, "Just below 900 meters."

Law nodded, "Level off and set it to auto – meeting in the galley in twenty."

"Aye, Captain," Teamer responded with a slight nod.

Law sauntered out of the Nav.-room and headed towards the stairs. As he descended, Broth stepped in front of him as he came to the middle deck opening.

"Yes, Broth?" Law asked, seeing the urgency reflected in the man's beady brown eyes.

Broth sucked in a breath and then asked his question, "Is what the guys are sayin' true? Did Sarin really…?" the middle aged man didn't know how to continue. He had been hearing the strange stories about the girl for the past hour now and didn't know what to make of them. He had stayed on the ship along with Teamer, like he usually did – due to a few old injuries and his increasing age, Broth wasn't on the list of front-liners when it came to fights – and hadn't been present at the scene to see Sarin's bloody event for himself.

"If she really made three Marines implode into nothing but blood?" The Captain finished Broth's question for him, "Yes. It's true."

Broth's jaw hung open slightly as he shook his head, "Didn't think arrows could do that – even with Haki, or whatever she calls it."

Law raised an eyebrow at him, "Arrows didn't do it – her fist did."

The cook's jaw dropped even more at this, but Law pushed past him before the disgruntled cook could ask any more questions. Law stepped in his silent way down the rest of the stairs to the low deck, and stopped at his room.

Before calling all of the men to a meeting, he wanted to look over a few of his medical books. He was sure there was something in there that could specifically tell him what had caused that circular scar on the base of Sarin's skull.

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><p>Voices echoed in the void of my mind. Dream voices that floated to me from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.<p>

"Subject is showing negative effects to sample injection '7BE4M ', Doctor. The intended result hasn't manifested and its skin has started to open up into wounds at the slightest touch," a cold and impersonal voice echoed.

A deep and manly voice hummed, "Decrease doses by 100 milligrams and start a fusion drip. Its immune system is trying to reject the serum. This might take longer than expected."

"Yes, Doctor. Should we sedate the subject as well? Its screams are giving me a headache."

In the dark abyss of my dream, heart-stopping screams drowned out the other voices and consumed me. Hours, days, months – all time was void in this scream-filled blackness. I wanted to conjoin my own screams with the invisible screamer, but found that my voice was as useless as my eyes.

* * *

><p>Bepo stood outside Sarin's door. She smelled all better now, but she kept mumbling in her sleep. The white bear glanced nervously at the door behind him.<p>

Her soft and drug addled voice floated through the crack beneath the door, probably inaudible to those with normal hearing, "The screams…the screams are so loud. Stop, stop. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Sarin tossed violently in her bed, endlessly repeating the apologies to the ghosts in her mind.

Bepo heard footsteps coming towards him, and an instinctive growl rumbled from deep within his diaphragm…if bears have diaphragms.

The newcomer held up his hands, "Calm down, Bepo. Just me. No need to get yerself all worked up." Broth stopped halfway down the corridor, stopping a few yards away from Sarin's door and Bepo the guard bear.

Why he was guarding the door was quite beyond anyone's guess, but there he sat, despite his well-known dislike of the low-deck, due to the heat.

The bear lowered his head, "Sorry."

"How's she doin'?" Broth asked, taking a few more steps towards the door.

"She smells better," Bepo answered with a sigh.

Broth raised an eyebrow at the bear, "Well, that's a start I guess…"

Suddenly Law's voice spoke over the intercom, following a soft click, "Meeting in the galley, men. Get here now." A click ended the message.

Broth looked up at the metal ceiling, as if expecting to see Law's words written up there in case someone missed the message. The cook then looked down at Bepo, "Yeh comin'?"

But the bear only shook his large head and continued to sit cross-legged at Sarin's door.

Broth shrugged and headed for the stairs, silently passing by members of his crew. He gave a silent nod to Jackal and Seko as they emerged from the engine room. Most of the crew was silent as they headed towards their captain. They had known there was going to be a meeting, and they had all assumed that it was going to be about Sarin.

About what she had done.

Sure, it's not like the crew hadn't seen anything gruesome before – hell, they'd all done some serious slaughtering in their careers, and were led by the Surgeon of Death. More times than they could count they've seen their captain returning to the ship completely covered in blood that wasn't his own, but they had yet to see a power that could vaporize three people at once, leaving nothing but their blood behind.

Broth hadn't been there to see it himself – and was secretly glad about said fact – but from the way the others talked about it, the girl had been downright scary. Right on par with the captain, some said, though of course the crew has been known to stretch the truth a bit.

As everyone sat down at the tables in Broth's galley, Broth stood by the doorway with Jean Bart and the inseparable duo Penguin and Shachi. He sent a specifically harsh gaze at Penguin. The cook heard that Pen had just stood there while the girl laid face-down in another man's blood. Heard he had been too terrified of her to even roll her over.

Penguin shifted under the cooks gaze, but didn't react to it like he normally would. If this had been a normal situation, he'd be arguing happily with the grizzled cook about sending him dirty looks – but not today.

Law was leaning against the wall by the small table in the corner. He was watching his crew file silently into the room and find a seat. They were noiseless. No rowdy banter, no shouts and laughter, no light-hearted complaints – just silence.

Though the Surgeon of Death loved how uncomfortable silent it was in the room, he decided to put the men out of their misery, "Listen up. Obviously we all either saw or heard about what Miss Sarin did today. Though your guess is as good as mine when it comes to what the hell her special…talent…was, I have a theory about her strange state." He smirked at the memory of all that blood surrounding her, and continued, "But I'm still testing it out. You won't ask her about what she did; you won't even mention it to her unless she brings it up. Understood?"

The crew nodded and grumbled.

"Good. Oh and quit with all the mopey fear. You're pirates for God's sake," Law rolled his eyes at the crew and strolled casually out of the galley, leaving his crew to talk amongst themselves.

They waited for his silent footsteps to completely disappear from hearing range before breaking up the silence with murmurs and retellings of what happened.

Seko came up to Penguin and Shachi, with Jackal right at his side. "So how is she now? I didn't know what was going on until someone told me to watch out for all the blood," Seko said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Bepo said she smelled better – whatever the hell that means," Broth answered, pulling himself into the conversation.

Penguin folded his hands and rested them on his head, squashing his hat down flat and causing some of this brown hair to poke out from the edges, "God – I was useless. I just couldn't…get myself to do anything."

"No one else did either, Pen – Sarin doesn't seem to member any of it, so don't worry." Jackal nudged the large-hatted man in the side.

"Still," Penguin sighed, "That voice she used was creepy. I'd never heard her talk like that before."

"What did it sound like? Maybe she was imitating a voice she knew – she's good at that. Remember when we had her help us with that prank on Eli?" Shachi looked to Penguin, thinking that maybe Sarin's voice was just copycatting someone else she'd heard before.

Pen shook his head, "It sounded flaky and psychotic…like she'd lost her mind. I remember thinking that it looked like she'd been possessed or something."

Jackal shivered, "I just can't get that laugh out of my head…the one she let out while exploding those guys. That'll be one for the nightmares, I tell ya."

Broth scowled at them all, "Well, yeh all need to quit thinkin' about it. Sarin's back to normal so there's no need for worryin'." He left the group, not wanting to hear anything else about how the girl had been. As far as Broth was concerned, she wasn't right in the head at the time – but he was confident Law could fix her. Law might like cutting up more than putting together, but he was damned good at both quite equally.

Broth disappeared into the kitchen with a muttered grumble at the gossiping men in his galley, and hoped the girl would get better soon – he'd gotten used to her company over the past week, and the kitchen seemed lonely without her.

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><p>Law was looking through his medical books again, searching for an article about schizophrenia that he knew to be somewhere in one of the old and well-read books. He flipped through page after page, until he finally found it. But before he could start to read it, he heard a weak voice coming from the room down the hall from his office.<p>

"Bepo?" her voice asked, sounding dry – a usual reaction to the meds.

He placed a loose paper into the page where the article was and closed the book. He listened closely, curious as to why she was waking up. He'd given her the drugs less than an hour ago – she shouldn't be conscious until five hours more.

Law heard a scrambling in the hallway. He assumed this was his first mate getting to his feet and opening the door. Law stood from his seat behind his desk and opened his door. He stood silently in the doorway and watched the scene.

"Uh, yes?" Bepo asked as he towered awkwardly in the doorway.

She sounded drowsy, as if only half awake, "I've been trying to figure it out on my own because I thought it would be impolite to ask…but…what are you?"

Law knew how Bepo usually reacted to the question. Usually the fuzzy white bear would say he was a pirate and avoid the question, but this time, Law was quite interested to see that Bepo gave a straight answer.

"A bear," he said in his odd high voice – Law could hear the slight strain in it from being uncomfortable with talking about what he was.

But Sarin repeated with a sleepy smile in her voice, "A bear…"

"I'm sorry," Bepo said quickly with a lowered head.

"Hey," Sarin said, sounding slightly concerned, "Why are you sorry? I bet being a bear is amazing," the smile came back into her voice, "Don't be sorry…" Sarin's sentence ended with a thump, as Law assumed her head dropped back onto the pillow.

She must have fallen back asleep.

Law watched Bepo stand in the doorway for a moment, his glassy black eyes lost in thought. Law's lips tightened.

He knew what the bear was thinking about.

The Surgeon of Death retreated back into his office to read that article on schizophrenia and take his mind away from the cold regions in the North Blue.

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><p><strong>That seemed ridiculously choppy to me = I promise I'll work on that in future chapters - i just had a lot of stuff to cover with this chapter.**

***Oh and something to look forward to, i'm going to try to fabricate what i believe to be Law's past and somehow incorporate it into here. So hopefully that'll be nice and gorey coolness xD because we're all wondering what made our favorite Surgeon of Death so sadistic and slightly insane**


	9. Chapter 8

**Hey guys - I'm sorry this one's shorter than what i've been trying to do lately, but I'll not have the chance to write for a few days, and wanted to at least give you guys something to read lol**

**Disclaimer: One Piece does not belong to me.**

**SHOUTOUT Time! lol  
>HarunoMarina - <strong>xD Thanks SOO much! YOu have no idea how much your comment made me smile!  
><strong>Rin87 - <strong>Thanks! I felt they needed a cute scene haha  
><strong>Son of Whitebeard - <strong>I'm glad you like my Law - i've been worrying that i've made him OOC or something lol Thanks for the review!

**So hope you like it ~Enjpy!~**

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><p>~ Chapter 8 ~<p>

I woke up to the sound of gentle snores. The soft sounds seeped through the crack between my door and the cold metal floor, and as I sent out my shadowy vision, I saw Bepo's strange figure sleeping curled up in a massive blob of shadow beside my doorway. I smiled, remembering vaguely my conversation with him. He was a bear! How unusually amazing! A bipedal, talking bear, who happened to be the first mate of a fearsome pirate crew. I wondered vaguely if he had eaten a Devil Fruit, but then realized that the Zoan-type Devil Fruits gave the eater the ability to transform into three different body forms…and Bepo had always been the same.

I dropped my thoughts on the bear outside my room for the moment and took stock of my health. I found that while my side had been bandaged and cared for, it still stung to move it. The rest of me seemed to be in decent condition – but my throat was dry and absolutely parched. My stomach rumbled as well, and I figured a quick trip to the kitchen wouldn't be too painful.

I threw the covers off my body, and gently eased my body up into a sitting position, sparing my right side as much movement as I could. Now sitting on the edge of my bed, I threw on a T-shirt over my exposed torso, and got slowly to a standing position. I figured going out in just my leggings wasn't the most decent thing in the world, but no one was in the kitchen at the moment, or even in the hallways. As I sent my displaced sight out through all the rooms, I found all beds occupied, except for the Captain's. I later found his lanky figure sitting very still in the infirmary.

Prim shifted from her spot at the foot of the bed and slithered over to my pillow. She coiled herself in the indent my head left, and quickly fell asleep in the warmth I had left on the pillow. I smirked and edged with pointed steps toward the door, not wanting to wake Bepo up.

Knowing that I'd run into no one, I slid my door open as quietly as possible. Bepo stirred in his sleep, but not enough to wake himself up. I smiled at the sleeping bear, appreciating his form of protection by keeping watch over me while I was injured and unconscious.

Once out of the room, I slid my door shut again, and walked cautiously down the hall towards the circular stairwell. My bare feet padded soundlessly on the cold metal floor. I made no sound as I slowly made my way up the stairs, careful not to pull at my right side.

I edged my hand beneath my shirt and lightly touched the places where the stitches rose up from underneath the bandages. Warmth from my hand seeped through as I put a little pressure on it to help ease the stinging pain it was causing me.

The hallways were deserted as I saw earlier, and once I got to the mid-deck entrance, I heard the loud, cumulative snores of the rest of the crew. I smiled. Even in their sleep, they were a rowdy bunch.

I entered the galley, where I had spent most of my time while on the submarine, and pushed through the curtain that separated the galley from the kitchen. I maneuvered to the cupboard where the glasses were kept and pulled one down. I held it under the sink faucet and let the tap water run for a few seconds.

Once the glass was heavy with water, I shut off the faucet and drank greedily. The water was gone in a matter of seconds, and I held it under the tap once again, my thirst not quite quenched.

As I downed the second glass of water, my stomach growled for something with more mass.

I set down my glass in the sink and walked to the food cupboards. My shadowy vision stared at the contents, but it was hard to tell what any of it was. Sacks and boxes and bags did nothing to tell me what the contents were. Finally I found a loaf-like shape on one of the shelves and pressed my hand down on it.

The contents of the plastic wrap felt spongy and light, and as I held the bag to my nose, I smelled the dry scent of yeast.

Bread. I grinned as my stomach yelled at me to start devouring the food before me, not caring if I ate the plastic along with it.

I pulled the plastic-wrapped loaf of bread out of the cupboard and set it down on a counter. I quickly unwrapped it, and pulled four slices off of the loaf. I ate them quickly, trying to appease my stomach.

My stomach accepted the food stuffs, but wanted more than measly bread.

I pursed my lips as I debated inwardly about rummaging through the refrigerator – but decided against it. There were glass jars and bottles in there that I would probably break on accident. My shadowy sight wouldn't be able to tell jam from salsa, so I forced my stomach into submission and contentedness with plain wheat bread.

After the fourth slice, my stomach felt considerably less empty, so I wrapped up the rest of the bread and put it back on the shelf where it belonged. As I leaned over the sink again for one last glass of water, I heard footsteps in the galley.

My shadowy vision picked up a familiar outline and I smiled to face my late-night visitor. "I didn't think anyone else was awake," I said softly, so as not to startle the outline who had been trying to walk quietly into the kitchen.

His hand pushed back the curtain that led into hid kitchen, "Sarin? What are yeh doin' up? Yeh should be restin'!" Broth's gruff voice scolded her.

She smirked and held up the glass of water, "Was thirsty and didn't want to wake Bepo up."

He shook his shadowy outline of a head, "I came cause I heard someone raidin' my kitchen. Didn't expect yeh to be the fiend behind the racket."

I cocked my head to the side, "Hmm, I must be more tired than I thought. I tried very hard to be quiet."

Broth shrugged his wide shoulders, "Well, yeh should get back to bed. Yeh're probably exhausted from all that happened."

I smiled at his concern, "No need to worry – it was just a little flesh wound. Not even serious."

I could feel his eyes staring at me steadily, as if slightly confused. I shifted uncomfortably on the balls of my feet, "What? What's wrong?"

He shook his head a little too quickly, "Oh, nothin'. I'm just tired, is all. I'll see yeh in the mornin'." He disappeared behind the curtain, and I watched his outline walk briskly back towards the men's quarters.

"What was that about?" I asked the now-empty kitchen. I pursed my lips and padded quietly towards the stairwell once again. I was lost in my thoughts as I made my way back to my bedroom, silently slipping past the sleeping bear and into my bed covers.

I turned off my Haki-sight and lay in my bed until sleep found me once again and whisked me off into dreams I would most likely forget once I woke up.

But the strange conversation and interactions with my crewmates didn't stop with the weirdness between Broth and I. The guys, who usually teased and joked with me, were now avoiding me as if I were the plague. All conversation was stiff, except with Bepo when I could catch him away from Law, and Jean Bart – but seeing as conversing with Jean Bart was always very limited and short, I was left feeling slightly agitated and very much confused.

What in the world was wrong with everyone?

I wiped down the galley tables with a little too much force, while my thoughts went back to breakfast earlier this morning.

As I sat with Broth and Seko – who seemed much quieter around me than normal – I noticed how quiet the whole room was. I drew in my brows at the collective group and finally spoke up, "Why's everyone so quiet this morning?"

I turned to where Rice was sitting beside Broth, and then to Shachi who was farther down the table from me. Everyone seemed to fidget in their seat and try to avoid looking my way.

"Everyone must be tired," Penguin mumbled to me, keeping his hatted head lowered and looking at his oatmeal.

I sighed and continued eating, hoping that they really were just tired, and nothing else was wrong. If something was wrong, they'd tell me about it, right?

My thoughts then flashed back to sometime after lunch. Bepo had told me that my clothes from the battle should be clean of blood and all fixed up by now, so I found my way to the laundry room on the low deck.

Rice's scrawny figure was whistling some tune, while he worked on the clothes. I remembered him telling me that was a medical assistant, but spent most of his time cleaning laundry.

As he whistled I stepped into the doorway. "Lucky – I've never been able to figure out how to whistle," I mused.

"Oh – Sarin!" he said, bringing his upbeat tune to an abrupt stop, "What's up?"

I noted the strange vibe in his voice…Nervousness? Usually Rice was so confident and quite happy – I'd never heard even a _hint_ of nervousness in his voice.

I shook my head hoping that something wasn't wrong, "Bepo said my clothes were all fixed up. Hope they weren't too much work for you."

"Yeah, they're right here," Rice said quickly as he rummaged through a pile of what seemed to be shadowy folded clothes, "No problem – stitched up the holes in your jacket and shirt. It was a little tricky to get all that blood off of the jacket, though."

I raised an eyebrow at him, "I didn't think I bled that much…it was just a little wound."

Immediately I felt him freeze, as if his whole body had been encased in ice. He stared in my direction, and he was so still that I could almost hear the blood racing through his veins.

"Rice? What's wrong? What did you mean by 'all that blood'?" I asked, hoping to get some answered. Maybe this had something to do with why everyone was so strange and distant with me today…

"Oh – uhh, nothing's wrong. I just meant that, uhh, it just got smeared around a lot, you know? That's all."

I stared at him, hoping that my scarred eyes were conveying the message that I didn't believe him.

He gave a few nervous laughs and then started inching towards me and the door. "Well, here take your stuff – I, uhh, just remembered that Law needed me for something in the sick bay."

I received my clothes that smelled strongly of bleach and sharp detergent, and watched his short and skinny outline hurry up the stairs, as if his heels were aflame.

I shook my head and brought my thoughts back to the present. I realized I had been viciously scrubbing down the same area of table for the past ten minutes now, and stood up straight. I sighed and threw the damp towel over the shoulder of my new jumpsuit – the other had been ripped and bloodied, and Bepo said it was easier to just throw it out and wear another one.

Apparently the sub had a large number of extras – though, none that were really small enough for me. The sleeves and legs were much too baggy, and felt like an over sized skin that I was trying to grow into.

I pushed up my sleeves again and stalked into the kitchen. I was going to find out what was wrong! I was getting tired of all this tension and silence.

I threw the curtain that separated the galley and the kitchen and stood in the doorway with my hands on my hips. "Broth – what's going on?" I said in my sternest voice, hoping that I'd be able to force the middle-aged cook to tell me what in the hell was wrong with everybody.

He looked at me, startled at my dramatic entrance, "What? Oh, nothin's going on. I'm just gettin' dinner re-"

"I didn't mean dinner!" I interrupted. "Look, Broth, I may not be able to see, but I'm not blind. Everyone's been acting weird since I woke up – you, Penguin, Shachi, Rice. Hell, even Jackal wouldn't come near me, and you know how flirty he normally is! So tell me!"

Broth scratched the back of his head and looked to the floor. His plumpish outline rocked on his heels, "Well…it's just that…are yeh sure yeh want to know?"

I threw up my hands in exasperation, "Yes, Broth! I'm seven_teen_ not _seven_! Stop trying to coddle me and tell me what the hell is going on!" His indirectness was starting to infuriate me.

He sighed and seemed to get lost in his thoughts, "Alright, but yeh asked me about it, alright? The Captain told us not to mention anythin' to yeh unless yeh started the conversation."

I mentally rolled my eyes at the man, "Out with it, Old Man."

"Well, back on the island, yeh didn't actually pass out…or, at least yeh didn't stay knocked out for long. Yeh came to the fight when it was almost over and, uh, killed three marines." His gruff voice was slow, and filled with some sort of emotion. It wasn't nervousness, like Rice, but more like…fear.

Fear?

"Okay…so I woke up and killed a few guys, and then for some reason can't remember. I'm sure you've killed people before – I'm sure everyone on this ship has killed LOTS of people before. Why's it so weird if I do it?" I let my hands cross over my chest, clearly not getting the reason for all the awkwardness.

Broth attempted to clarify further, "It wasn't just that. Yeh more like pulverized them. Penguin saw the whole thing…you were mutterin' and lookin' strange, and then the marines came towards yeh and yeh…yeh made them implode into nothin' but blood."

My jaw hung open as my scarred and useless eyes stared at the cook.

Imploded?

"How in the world did I do that?" I asked, quite shocked and slightly disbelieving.

Broth shook his head and leaned against the sink, "Penguin said yeh squeezed your hand into a fist, and then they just…" he let his sentence hang in the air between us. It dropped dead to the floor, where I was reluctant to pick it up.

I used my shadowy vision to look down at my hands.

They looked normal – five fingers on each. They didn't look like they had the power to puree someone into pools of blood. Sure they could draw blood if I scratched hard enough, or cause harm if I had my arrows and Prim at hand – but not implode living people.

My head snapped up to Broth, "How could I do that and not remember anything?"

Broth shook his head, "I don't know. Captain said he had a theory or two, but he didn't say anythin' more about it."

I pursed my lips and took the damp towel off of my shoulder. I threw it onto the counter and left through the curtain. My shadowy sight shot through the entire sub, searching for the lanky and lean outline of my Captain.


	10. Chapter 9

**Yay~! I've finally updated lol sorry about the wait. My original story has taken priority this past month. Anywho, here's the long awaited chapter nine :)**

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><p><strong>~Chapter 9~<strong>

I forced myself to knock on his door before I chickened out. I used the heel of my hand, reluctant to form a fist after hearing about my bloody incident with the Marines. I was still hesitant to believe that it actually happened, but after all of the fear and tension that the guys have been giving off in waves led me to believe that _something _happened that revolved around me.

The metal was cold on my hand and sent a chill rippling through my body…much like the man I was about to question.

Law's cool voice spoke from the depths of his room and office, "Come in."

I took a quick breath and pushed open the door.

I could hear the tired smirk in his voice as he spoke before I could start bombarding him with questions, "That didn't take long." I was quiet, waiting for him to continue and moments later he did, "I was sure they'd be able to keep quiet for at least another hour or so."

"I got Broth to tell me," I cut in, "Is it true? I mean…did I really do that with just my hands? Maybe Penguin was just exaggerating…"

Law sighed and set his elbows on his desk, resting his chin in his interlocked fingers. "Well, I can tell you Penguin wasn't making it up – others saw you're little…display as well," he said slowly in thought, "It seems you have an unusual ability that no one knew about…"

I ran my fingers through my short hair and used the doorframe to keep me balanced, "I don't…I don't know how I could have done that. I don't even remember it…you'd think I'd remember killing three people, let alone vaporizing them. That's not something you should be able to forget."

The last thing I remembered was the pain in my side and the feel of warmth seeping from my hip. After that, there was nothing until the infirmary and waking up in the room with Law.

Law hummed in thought, bringing me out of mine, "Do the words 'cold voices' mean anything to you?"

A heavy feeling settled in my stomach.

Cold voices…they didn't sound familiar…

And yet…

I shook my head, "Vaguely…I don't really know."

Law hummed again and then pushed himself up from his seat, "Let's take a walk to the infirmary."

I groaned involuntarily at the mention of the sick bay, but followed my Captain's suggestions. I followed his soft footsteps up the stairs, listening to the background sounds that rang through the sub's metal walls – clangs and grrr's echoing from the boiler and engine rooms, the voices of the guys talking and laughing with each other, ringing footsteps on the other levels, and as we passed by the entrance to the mid-deck, the sounds of Broth banging around in the galley.

We eventually made it up onto the upper level and into the sliding doors of the infirmary. I had been hoping Bepo would be there as well to keep it from being just Law and myself, but I had no such luck. The bear's large outline was on the outer deck while the sub had come to the surface for air.

Law pushed me pointedly towards the operating table and told me to sit.

I did so, edging myself up onto the cold surface of the metallic table. I thought back to waking up on the same table only a day or so ago and suppressed a cringe.

I really disliked hospitals and infirmaries or sickbays were just as bad.

Law's outline leaned against the far wall as he mumbled something.

I was about to ask him what he said when a strange prickling encased my entire body, making the hair on my arms and back of my neck stand up straight. It felt like I was being cocooned in static. My hands instinctively started rubbing my arms to try to get rid of the feeling but found that nothing I did had any affect. With my shadowy vision I tried to find Law, but found a small barrier that surrounded me like a shadowy dome. The dome cut me off from the rest of the world, and all I could sense, feel or see with my Haki-sight was myself, and the cold operating table that I sat on. Even the floors beneath me were somehow blocked from my view, even though the dome didn't go through or beneath the floor.

In a rising panic I hopped down from the table and placed a hand on the barrier that trapped me - transferring more static into my small cocoon that buzzed around my body. "What is this? What's going on?"

"Relax," Law's voice spoke to me, seemingly from nowhere. His cold and smirking voice seemed to almost appear in my head, "This is part of my Devil-Fruit power."

I tried to take a few calming breaths, but the static felt as if it were tightening around me, constricting me like Prim did when she was scared.

"Why though? What's this for?"

Law's smirk didn't disappear in his voice, "A test. Put your hands out, palms up."

I shakily did as he said, starting to understand what he was thinking.

"Now quickly clench them."

I hesitated, "Are you sure?" What if this barrier wasn't enough to constrict the strange ability I had…if I even had the ability in the first place.

"Do it," He said a little more seriously, "The Dome can't be pierced by anything until I let it go, so just clench your fists."

I nodded and held my breath.

I quickly pulled my outstretched palms into tights fists.

But nothing happened.

I tried it again, but still no reaction. There was no change in my hands – no feeling of power or ball of energy had shot from them, nothing that could have pulverized three grown men seemed to manifest.

I thought for a moment. "It might only work if there's something alive for it to work on," I suggested.

"I don't think it's necessary to test that," his voice said with an amused smirk as it appeared in my head.

Suddenly, the barrier fell away and the hand of static that had wrapped around me disappeared into nothingness. I slouched against the metal table, and let out a breath. I was relieved at least that nothing happened – but I still couldn't deny that I had done _something_ that had caused three men to implode upon themselves.

Now we just had to figure out why, and how.

"Captain…do you have any idea what's going on with me?" I asked slowly. I feared for the lives of the crew…maybe even my own – I had no idea if this strange ability of mine could accidentally inflict pain upon myself. I didn't want to be a danger to anyone – especially to the people who'd finally treated me with some sort of decency, despite their occupation as pirates.

The guys on the crew – and even Law to an extent – had accepted me after only a week, whereas the women of Amazon Lily still didn't care for me. I didn't want to do anything to hurt them, or bring them excess trouble.

Law hummed and spoke, "A few theories…"

"Any you care to share?" I asked nervously.

Law came to my side and stopped just inches away from me. He was so close to me, that I could feel the heat that his body was radiating versus the cold air that habitually infected the sick bay. "Not particularly. I deem you relatively harmless – so go back to the galley, and tell anyone that skirts you to calm their asses down and quit acting like scared dicks."

I couldn't help letting out a small laugh, "Is that a Captain's order?"

I saw his head nod and felt his smirk settle in the small space between us, "Of course. If you damage their pride a little, they'll cut it out."

"Smart – I guess that's why you're the Captain."

Suddenly his hand reached behind me and settled on the small of my back.

I froze, completely unprepared for the strange contact. My mouth hung open in shock for a second and I debated within my mind over whether I should pull out of his touch or just wait for him to let me go. I felt like a deer being spotted through a hunter's scope, but frozen in place – giving the hunter the decision to either kill me or let me go.

He seemed to enjoy making me uncomfortable. After a few long seconds of torture that seemed to drag out for minutes he pushed me quickly towards the door, "I'm sure Broth is waiting for you to return."

I shook my head in frustration and stuttered, "Y-yeah – I should probably leave now."

I could feel his smirky, chilling eyes watch me as I hurried out of the sick bay as quickly as possible, and found that the galley seemed to have moved farther away in the small time that I'd been in the infirmary with the Captain.

I scowled as the oddly cold feeling of his hand still flickered across my lower back. I fidgeted with the braid that hung down the left side of my face and finally entered into the galley.

As Law had said, Broth was pacing between the tables acting as if he didn't know what to do with himself.

"Oi –yeh're back," he stated presumably once he saw me. He took a step towards me, but then stopped.

I shook my head at the burly cook, "What?"

He scratched at the back of his neck, "So what'd Captain say?"

"That I was more or less harmless," I held out my hands so that he could easily see them, "Watch."

Before he could protest, I clenched my hands into fists – and just as with the protective dome, nothing happened. Broth was still standing on the balls of his feet, watching me as I clenched and unclenched my hands a few times for emphasis.

After a few more demonstrations, he let out a sigh of relief, "Well that's good. Stupid Pen got me all worked up about nothin'."

I shook my head at the burly cook, "So should we get back to work?"

* * *

><p>I gave the guys a good scolding as they came into the galley for dinner. They had all lined up quietly and completely out-of-character, their usual demeanor of rowdiness and insults quelled by an icy nervousness.<p>

I put my hands on my hips and gave them the most convincing glare I could pull together with my scarred eyes, "God! How long is this going to last? You are the fearsome and fearless Heart Pirates, who've become one of the terrors of the Grand Line, and you're all scared of a blind girl…that's pretty ridiculous."

Aware that I had all of their attention I threw my hands up in the air so that everyone could see them. As I had done earlier with Broth, I drew my hands into fists a few times, "Oooo, how scary! Tch." I let my hands drop down to my hips, "So are you guys gonna stop acting like I'm some sort of diseased person now?"

I don't know who it was exactly, but I was almost completely sure that Shachi was the one to start laughing.

Eventually the whole crew was laughing like the maniacs that they were, and I joined in with them. I was aware of Bepo and Law's outlines standing in the galley doorway, Bepo seeming to watch the scene with interest, while Law watched with a cool smirk readable in his very demeanor.

Jackal was the first to approach me. He slung an arm over my shoulders and flicked my braid with his fingers. His flirty, honey-toned voice said sweetly to me, "I apologize on the behalf of all these retards. Will you ever forgive me?"

"Oi! Who're you calling a retard?" A crewmate by the name of Julian asked offendedly before I could reply. He wore a tight beanie over his head, causing a lot of his thick hair to stick out of the edges in spiky tufts, almost giving him the appearance of wearing a shadowy crown of thorns on the outline of his head.

"You, Jules! You were completely terrified of her," Jackal argued back.

"Blame Penguin! He was the one who scared the shit outta me with his story!" Julian pointed the accusatory finger at Pen's large and overstuffed hat that had slunk over to the corner, probably predicting that the spotlight would soon come to him.

As everyone turned to start bashing on Pen he made a break for it and darted into the kitchen for a temporary escape.

All I could do was laugh at all of them and watch the scene.

But before the accusations got any further, Law spoke up, "Now you've all stopped being pussies, can we get on with dinner?" His cool voice cut through the chaos like a keen blade. He pushed himself off of the doorway which he had been leaning against and walked calmly towards the kitchen to get his food.

The rest of the crew fell into line after him, this time back to their loud and jostling manner. I shook my head at them all and fell into line between Shachi and Penguin. I threw an arm around each of their necks and hung off of them, "Well, that was eventful."

Pen laughed nervously, "Yeah…sorry 'bout that. You were a real creeper though."

I kicked his leg with my bare foot. "Sorry, what was that?" I asked sweetly.

He grumbled nondescriptly under his breath in response as Shachi and I laughed.

I released their necks, and soon we had gotten our food and sat down. Once again, loud conversations infused with bad table manners and crude jokes echoed down all the tables, and my usual group seemed back to normal.

Inwardly, I shook my head at the strange crew I had landed in the middle of – one moment they were awkward and eerily silent, and the next they acted as if nothing strange had ever happened. It was completely amazing how quickly they could move on.

This crew was definitely something else – and I wouldn't change any of it.

We laughed and ate all through dinner, poking jabs particularly at Rice and Penguin for their obvious fear of me. Rice tried to shrug it off and claimed that he had no idea what I was talking about, whereas Penguin responded quickly by telling me how weird I was.

"You would have been scared too if you'd seen yourself!" He said as we took our empty plates into the kitchen.

I mentally rolled my eyes at him and teased, "If I could see anything, it would see how lame you are."

"Seriously though," he continued, ignoring my jab, "Your voice sounded like a stranger's and your eyes got all narrow and stuff. Completely freaky."

"Whatever," I countered, "It must have been some weird dream-state type of thing, because I have no memory of any of it."

Penguin shook his head, "So you don't have any secret powers of pulverization that you aren't telling us about?"

"Nope," I answered bluntly, "No idea how that happened either."

"Hmm…maybe you _were _possessed by a demon," he thought out loud.

I punched him in the arm, "That's completely ridiculous. You seriously thought that?"

Pen shrugged, "You never know…evil spirits have that kind of power."

I thought for a moment and then smirked, "Maybe aliens hijacked my body and gave me some sort of temporary power to evaporate my enemies."

Penguin scoffed at me, "No one believes in aliens. That's stupid."

"About as believable as your evil spirit theory. Seriously," I shook my head at him and dumped by plate in the sink. I grabbed a damp towel that was draped over the sink faucet and whipped it at him, "I've gotta clean up the tables so get outta my way."

The towel snapped against his side, and caused him to jump sideways, "Fine fine – I'm leaving now…weirdo." He as well as the last few stragglers left the galley, leaving Broth and I with a mountain of dishes to do.

I walked out with my damp rag to wipe down the tables before any of the food became dried to the metallic surface, when I saw a familiar outline hovering in the doorway.

"Hey, Seko – what's up?" I asked as I came to the table nearest him to start cleaning.

His outline with a simple baseball cap pulled over the crown of his head came to the end of the table I was working on. "Need any help?" he asked with a strange pang to his usually smooth and calm voice.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "If this is because you feel bad for avoiding me, don't worry about it. I'd have done the same thing if you were in my shoes."

"I somehow doubt that," he said with a small laugh, "But I'm still offering to help."

I gave him a smile and tossed him my damp rag, "Weeeell, if you insist."

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><p>"How much longer, Teamer?" Law asked his navigator as she stood stoically behind the man with the pom-pom atop his head.<p>

Teamer gave a quick look at all his screens and dials and then sent a look over his shoulder at his captain, "Well get there by noon tomorrow, if not sooner…but Captain, Why are we returning to Sabaody? Shouldn't we just skip it and go to Fishman Island? The sub'll be able to handle the depth."

"It will only be a short stop – but it's quite necessary. There should be someone there who can help us with Sarin's memory problem." Law narrowed his eyes at the radar screens, as if they could somehow give him the answers to his questions. The most prominent of which was _What in the hell was Sarin?_

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><p><strong>Sorry, i know that was short and slightly uneventful, but next chapter I've got some good plans for action and maybe a few answers ;)<strong>_  
><em>


	11. Chapter 10

**Hey - i this chapter just flowed so easily xD i didn't want to wait to post it so here you go xD**

**Elielephant -** haha yeah it's been a while, but i'm glad you liked the update xD Those were my favorite lines as well lol

**Well, Enjoy!~**

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><p>An echoing blip sounded throughout the submarine, signaling our rising trip to the surface. Now used to the feeling of movement that the sub gave off every time we started upwards or sunk down, I was able to ignore the feeling and go about my work with Broth.<p>

Though work might have been an exaggeration.

"Broth, that's no fair! You can't have Sarin on your team – it's like cheating!" Julian complained as he fidgeted with his tight beanie and played with the tufts of hair that stuck out pointedly from his head.

"Bah, shut up. It's not like yeh'd win anyways – yeh're a sucky poker player with or without Sarin on yeh're side." Broth leaned back in his seat at the tables while I sat beside him, smirking at the other players and calmly stroking Prim's scales. The battlesnake was currently positioned over my shoulders and wrapped around my left arm, leaving my right one to pet her freely and give her my affections.

Obviously, I couldn't play cards if I couldn't see them – but if I was teamed up with someone, I was perfect at spotting tells and determining who was bluffing or not. I was like a lie-detector and was currently raking in a lot of beri for Broth and I.

I propped my head up on the table and smiled sweetly in Julian's direction, "Don't be a sore loser – you were perfectly fine with me playing before the game started." Prim sent a playful hiss in his direction as if to emphasize my words.

The battlesnake and I earned a quiet laugh from Kinney and a scoff from Julian. "That was before I realized you were a cheater! I think you're lying about the whole blind-thing…that or your psychic. I'm not sure which yet," Julian muttered angrily to himself.

I was about to whisper our next move to Broth, when Law's voice over the intercom system cut me off.

"As I'm sure you've gathered, we've arrived at Sabaody. We will leave here for three days, so be back by then, or we'll leave without you. Jean Bart, Bepo, and Miss Sarin – meet me on the main deck, if you would." His voice ended with a mechanical click and the sub was left in silence.

I smiled at the table of card players, "I guess this is where I leave you." I pocketed half of the winnings in Broth's pile and waved to the guys before anymore complaints about my cheating could surface. Prim quickly fastened herself around my waist as if telling me that I was NOT going to leave her behind on the sub while I went gallivanting around the new island.

I wondered for a moment if Prim ever got homesick, or if she was just as excited as I to see all the new places far away from Amazon Lily.

I padded quickly down the stairs, past the guys who were gearing up for their days in town. This would be the first real place where we'd stop, and I was both dreading and looking forward to seeing what the crew did in the free time.

Once on the low deck and inside my room, I threw my satchel on over my torso so that it hung down on my left hip and threw my quiver of arrows into it, as well as an extra pair of clothes, just in case we stayed in town instead of on the sub.

Prim recoiled around my waist so that she was situated atop the satchel strap and flickered her tongue in my direction, telling me that she was all set. I stroked her head and hurried up the stairs once again, quickly padding towards the thick metal door that would lead me out into the fresh air.

As I stepped out, sunlight hit me from every angle, sending warmth into my body and forcing me to let out a sigh of satisfaction. I took in a deep breath, and crinkled my nose at the faint soapy smell of the air that mixed with the salty scent of ocean and even fainter smells of cooking food wafting from somewhere on land. I tried to focus on the food smell and guessed at a barbeque of some kind.

A trio of outlines facing me caught my attention and I hurried over to Law's lean and impatient figure, flanked by Bepo's large and odd one and Jean Bart's massive one.

"Sorry," I said quickly, feeling an embarrassed heat surface on my cheeks, "Didn't mean to make you wait."

Law seemed to ignore me and spoke to the gargantuan man to his right, "Jean Bart, I'd like you to stay close to Sarin while in town – and make sure no one goes wandering too far. After the whole Marineford incident and the death of Whitebeard, I'm sure the Marines are going to be set loose over the whole archipelago."

Jean Bart nodded somberly and I fought the urge to protest.

I frowned inwardly. _Did he really feel the need to designate a babysitter? I was not a child, and though last time we stopped somewhere I accidentally vaporized a few people, there really wasn't a need to keep me restrained…right?_

I bit back a sigh and realized that I was still new to the crew. It was probably best that I stuck with someone anyways.

After giving an order to Broth and Kinney to take turns keeping watch over the ship, Law and Bepo hopped off the sub with strange shadowy grace onto an outstretched root of the archipelago that hovered just near the edge of the main deck.

I turned up to Jean Bart and sighed, "I guess you're stuck with babysitting."

The massive man shrugged at me, and then suddenly brought his large mitt of a hand down to pat my head, "Not babysitting. Just keeping watch over." Though I couldn't see it, I could feel the atmosphere around us lighten and I was sure that the large man was giving me one of his very rare smiles.

I returned the smile and turned to find the outlines of Penguin, Shachi, and Jackal all bursting through the doorway, and out onto the deck, closely followed by Seko, Rice and Julian – the last of which still seemed to be emitting bitter waves in my direction.

"Oi!" Shachi laughed loudly in the open air, "I say we find the cheapest, shabbiest bar in the area and get wasted."

Penguin slung an arm around his friend, "I second that emotion!"

"That's _motion_, you dumbass," Jackal said as he smacked Pen upside the head.

I stared at the group and finally asked, "I feel stupid, but what does _wasted_ mean?"

Judging by the silence, I was probably correct to assume that a few jaws were hanging open in fly-catcher positions.

I cheeks warmed up in the silence, "Come on guys – say something. I was secluded on Amazon Lily my whole life, give me a break."

Seko gave a small laugh, "I forget you don't know much about the outside world. You normally act like you know what's going on."

I scrunched my nose at the group ahead of me, "I kinda have to do that…if I asked you about everything you mentioned that I'd never heard of before, you'd all probably get tired of teaching me." I thought for a moment longer and continued, "And I probably don't want to know the meanings of some of the things you say…"

Jackal laughed at this and quickly strode over to my side. He draped an arm over my shoulder, "Well, tonight will be a learning experience for you." He playfully flicked my braid, "But don't worry, I'm a good teacher."

"Oi!" Penguin slapped the back of Jackal's head, "Who'd want to learn anything from you?"

Before they could get too far with their insults I shrunk out of Jackal's arm and headed for the root that would be our make-shift bridge to the mainland of Sabaody, "Well, let's get going. I guess I have a lot of life lessons to learn." I laughed and hopped onto the deck railing and onto the reaching root from there, clutching the diagonal strap of my satchel as I leapt.

The guys behind me snickered and Julian called out from the back of the crowd, "I say first round is on Sarin!"

Everyone either cheered or shouted at Julian in response, and by the sound of things I guessed I was in for an interesting night with my crew.

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><p>Bepo's nose wiggled back and forth. "This place smells really soapy," the fluffy white bear clad in a bright orange jumpsuit said with his oddly high-pitched voice.<p>

Law rolled his eyes and ignored the odd mutterings of his first mate. He walked at an even pace down the gravelly path, eyeing the numbers printed in black script on the striped trunks of the Sabaody mangroves. They were now entering Grove 7's main area, and Law kept a keen eye on the dusty cropping of buildings ahead of them.

"Where exactly are we going Captain?" Bepo asked lightly, smelling the intensity of his captain's spirit aimed on the place ahead of them. They'd been walking for close to twenty minutes now, and the white bear was just now wondering why they were walking so far out of the way.

"We need to see someone – and according to what I heard the day of Fire Fist Ace's execution, the man we need to see is staying here." Law's eyes shifted carefully over the deserted state of the buildings on either side of the narrow road they were walking on. It seemed that despite the Marine's "Victory" at Marineford, the people were still scared to be so close to the entrance of the New World.

The death of Whitebeard had taken quite a toll on the world –and Law was sure that it wasn't going to work out well for anyone. Not the Marines. Not the citizens. And certainly not the pirates.

Bepo, satisfied with Law's answer, kept up a sharp lookout for anything suspicious. The bear was wary because of Law's intense emotion and because of the eerie feeling he got from the seemingly abandoned buildings.

When Bepo heard movement to their left, and smelt the newcomer attempting to sneak up on the pair of them, he did nothing. He didn't need to. He could tell by Law's stance that he had known of the newcomer at the exact same instance that the bear had.

Suddenly, a man of a portly nature appeared donning a royal purple robe that hooded his face and billowed out behind him. He held a gun aimed at Law's head and snarled from the shadows created by his hood, "Unless you want to die, you should leave."

Law only smiled is calm and chilling smile and faced the man with the gun. He stepped forward so that the cold metal of the gun barrel was touching the center of his forehead. Law's tattooed fingers played with the grip on his nodachi which was still propped casually against his shoulder. "Tell Mr. Hawkins that the Dark Doctor is here to see him," Law said in a rather bored voice. His icy blue eyes were lit with a cold flame, as if daring the man with the gun to try something stupid.

Law laughed inwardly at the thought of how long it would take this man to bleed to death out there in the deserted street. The Surgeon of Death visualized the many thrilling procedures he could perform on this man – none of which had a likely survival rate.

But, to Law's sadistic displeasure, the portly man in the cape made a hand signal to someone else yet to be seen, and lowered his gun.

Law's smirk disappeared with disappointment as the portly man led them into an abandoned gift shop, deep into the storage room at the back.

Instead of being piled with boxes and shelves like one would expect, the back room looked to be redecorated as a gypsy's hovel might look. Beads hung from the open doorway, fabrics of transparent and metallic nature were draped over all flat surfaces, glitter seemed to have seeped into the air, causing everything to sparkle oddly when light passed into the room through purple-sheened curtains that almost completely blocked out the sun from this dark room. Incense mixed with the stale smell of coagulated blood masked the room, and made Law itch to freshen up that wonderful smell of blood.

Sitting on the edge of a small and rickety cot, sat the man Law had come to find. Basil Hawkins, Captain of the self-titled Hawkins Pirates.

The man was lanky and tall, even while sitting down, but there was no color to his haggard face. Large dark bags formed under his eyes, which were bloodshot and droopy. Long blonde hair hung lifeless and stringy from his head, and bandages tightly wrapped his torso and his right knee. Just by the bloody state of the bandages, Law could tell that the Dark Doctor's services were probably needed. Obviously someone had tried to patch him up – but the job was clumsy and probably hindering Hawkins' recovery.

"Trafalgar Law…Surgeon of Death and fellow Supernova. I see you've come for my services, though as to why, it seems unlikely that you've grown an interest in my magical skills." Hawkins shuffled cards with practiced grace as he spoke with a deadly calm voice that almost rivaled Law's…almost.

"Very perceptive. True, I'm not interested for silly illusions and sleight of hand – but I am interested in the possibility that you can hypnotize people." Law stared with his cold fire as Hawkins laid out three cards on a small table in front of him.

Hawkins hummed in thought as he flipped over each card with slow determination. Once satisfied with his readings, he looked up at Law and matched the cold stare that he found in Law's eyes, "I see. This new crewmate of yours…It seems there is something that you wish to know that they do not."

Law gave a slight nod, "They've had amnesia for the past nine years, and have no idea of their past. I need to know what happened to them so that I can assess a certain power they've shown while in a dream state."

"Hmmm," Hawkins stared down at the cards once again, "Interesting. If I can unlock these memories, what are you offering in return?"

Law looked over the bandaged Hawkins once again, this time with his medical mind. "I see that an artery in your knee was damaged. Someone tried to fix it, but the job was shoddy. The moment you put any strenuous pressure on that knee, the artery will burst open again, prolonging your recovery rate exponentially. That chest wound also seems to have been stitched up without proper cleaning. By the veined look of your skin surrounding the bandage I say it's been infected." Law's analytical eyes came back up to meet Hawkins'.

The Supernova stared somberly at Law, "I see. You'll offer me proper medical services in turn for successfully unlocking this crewmember's memory. Correct?"

Law nodded and turned to leave, "I'll be back around the same time tomorrow with your subject," he said without turning around.

Bepo – who'd stayed outside of the back room due to the exceedingly strong scents of the incense, quickly followed after Law as he walked out of the room, and back the way they had come through the nearly deserted cropping of buildings.

* * *

><p>We were just outside the pub entrance when Shachi stopped me in my tracks.<p>

"Alright," he started, "First things first. This is a bar, and drunk men will probably try to hit on you."

I smirked, "So like Jackal then?"

Ignoring the smooth complaints of said crewmate, Shachi continued, "Yes, but worse. When guys get drunk, they get stupid and rowdy and very handsy with women." He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly as I waited for him to continue. "So if someone tries to like…touch you anywhere weird –"

I interrupted him, "Wait – what do you mean by weird?"

"Uhh, well…"

Jackal came to his rescue and added, "Chest, ass, and thighs will probably be the most common places." I ignored the fact that Jackal had probably been the culprit of aforementioned touching, and looked again to Shachi's outline to continue.

He groaned in discomfort but continued, "Well – if a guy comes onto you like that, and you can't get him to back off, kick him in the balls."

I felt my cheeks heat up again, but I had to ask, "Where is that exactly?"

Most everyone groaned at my lack of knowledge, and Shachi sighed in awkward frustration, "You really don't know that?"

I shook my head, "Amazon Lily – remember? You guys were the first ones I saw up close, and even then I can only see your outlines. I don't know any of your…anatomy."

Shachi groaned again, "Well – just kick between the legs if the guy won't back off…shesh, you really don't know much." He spun me by the arm and pushed me towards the door of the bar, "Let's just get drunk already and you can learn as you go."

I sighed, "I guess that's fine. Sorry guys."

As we entered the musty air of the pub, I used my shadowy sight to observe the bar. Booth seats lined the walls, except for the one directly in front of the door, which held a long bar with mostly unoccupied stools. The atmosphere was slow, and the few people even in the bar were either sitting alone in a corner, or sleeping at one of the booths. Behind the bar was a hallway that claimed "restroom" with a sign hanging over the entrance, while another open doorway just beside the hallway led to a narrow flight of stairs. I stretched my sight upwards, to find that there were a few rooms with beds above us.

Seko sighed as he walked beside me, "Well, it's not your fault. You just grew up on the most shielded island possible…I just hope nothing bad happens because you don't know enough."

I scratched the back of my neck, "Well, as long as I stick with you guys I should be fine."

"Ehh," Penguin started, "Maybe not Jackal."

"Oi! Shut it, Pen!" Jackal countered bitterly.

"Just saying," Pen replied with a snarky laugh, "You're a horny drunk."

I crinkled my nose and turned to Seko, "Do I even want to know what that means?"

Seko patted my shoulder, "I'm afraid you'll find out sometime tonight whether you want to or not. Just stick beside me or Jean Bart – I'm a pretty calm drunk and Jean Bart doesn't drink."

I nodded and turned to the massive man bringing up the rear. "Do you not like to drink, then?"

The large man grunted, "I become someone else when I drink – and it's someone I hate."

My brows creased, "Wait – so drinking makes you change?"

Seko answered, "Yes. If you drink too much alcohol you get drunk, and when you're drunk, your emotions can sometimes run wild. Pen and Shachi are the happy, giggly drunks, while Julian is more of the angry or depressing drunk."

"Huh, so what type will I be?" I asked.

Seko and the gang all piled into a corner booth –except for Jean Bart who pulled up a stray chair from one of the tables and settled himself beside the door. "Most likely you'll be a happy drunk," Seko answered with a small laugh.

I was crammed between Seko and Penguin. Prim, who had so far stayed stationary on my waist, was now writhing her body up my torso, and situating herself on my shoulders. I patted her head and looked up to see Julian staring expectantly at all of us. "Oi, all of you cough up some beri so I can buy us shots."

"Shots?" I asked quickly, my mind imagining needles and medicine.

"No," Rice laughed, "They're just smaller drinks. Very powerful though."

I nodded in his direction and pulled out some of my money from my pockets. I pushed it into Julian's shadowy hands, who muttered something about it being his money in the first place.

I inwardly scoffed at him but kept quiet as I wondered what these shots would taste like. I had asked earlier what alcohol had tasted like, but everyone said it was something I had to try on my own. They said if they described it, I might not want to try it.

Prim started to slither off of my shoulders, as she noticed a ledge on the back of the booth seats. She hissed happily at me as she slithered along the edge, stopping once her whole long body was stretched out and her head was by Rice on the opposite side of the table.

The short scrawny man seemed startled at the snake's sudden appearance. "It won't bite me, will it?" he asked nervously.

I smiled, "No – Prim's good…just give her a bite of food from time to time if you order any meat."

"Okay." Rice eased his hand closer to the snake and patted her head gently. She replied by flicking her tongue at him and butting her head into his palm.

I laughed, "That means she trusts you."

"Well that's good then," he said, releasing his nervousness about the reptile.

Just then Julian came back with enough glasses for the seven of us all piled up into a rickety tower that clinked every time Julian made a sudden move, as well as a large bottle that I assumed was the alcohol.

He set the tower of glasses down and Rice started lining up the glasses so there was one for everyone. Julian snickered to himself as he poured the bottle of drink into each glass. "Heh – bartender said this was good tequila."

The smell of it was acidic and sharp, and I was more curious than ever to try it.

A small smile picked at the corners of my lips as we all picked up a glass and raised it to our lips.

"Ready?" Penguin asked, looking over to Julian to make sure he was sitting down and ready to drink. Once he was satisfied that we were all ready he shouted, "GO!"

I laughed and downed the short glass of liquid in a single gulp.

Sharp and slightly citrusy fire burned my esophagus as the tequila charged down my throat. As soon as I could breathe again I burst out into a spasm of coughs amidst a chorus of laughs echoing from my cohorts' mouths.

"God!" I coughed, my hand instinctively going to my neck, as if to somehow quell the fire of the first drink, "That felt like drinking hot coals and pure lemon juice."

The guys laughed harder and Seko patted my back, "So? You like?"

"Not sure," I smiled wryly, "You better give me another."

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><p><strong>Something to look forward to - drunken Shachi and Penguin lol get ready<strong>


	12. Chapter 11

**Phew! I've really been writing a lot on this story xD I'm glad i got my muse back for this one because i really like it haha. Anyways, here's the new edition**

**Elielephant - haha Yeah Sarin's a cheater - but she really can't help it lol And i'm glad you're excited to see Hawkins part - i'm excited to write it lol He's one of those characters that never really gets much face time, so i'm hoping i do him justice. Haha Jackal's the most fun to write, and i think you'll like him in this chapter ;) Thanks for all the awesome reviews!**

**Son of Whitebeard - lol not quite, but they do and will in future chapters get up to some serious shenanigans lol**

**Alright, here's Chapter 11~!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 11<strong>

Six shots of strong tequila, three "samples" of different types of softer beers, and two hours later, Sarin was well on her way to being completely shit-faced. Seko, who'd stopped the shots after two to start nursing a bottle of something milder, laughed as the drunken girl talked aimlessly with Penguin about his hat.

"I don't get it," she said with a slight hiccup at the end of her statement, "It's so…big and I can't see your face!" Her hand reached out and pressed down the top of Penguin's black and white hat. Her other hand came up and started jabbing at his nose.

Penguin – who'd already transitioned into his drunken-giggle phase – just laughed and started poking her forehead in return.

"Sarns," Shachi spoke jumbledly from the other side of Penguin, "You probably can't see cause of your blind-thing."

"But…but," The red-haired girl was obviously trying to say something, but couldn't find the word. Her hands had moved away from Penguin and were now waving in circles through the air as her brain stuttered silently. "OH! But your outline – I can see that usually. But his hat is just so BIG! Why do you all wear hats?"

Penguin burst into another set of giggles and let his head hit the table in front of him, "Why don't YOU wear a hat? You should wears one because then we'd all match!"

Shachi joined the giggles, "I'm a HAT pirate – hehe – get it? I said hat, not heart."

Seko rolled his eyes and left the trio to their giggling conversation. He gazed around the room with his calm brown eyes. The group had dispersed from the booth a little while ago to spread about the room.

Jackal was sitting with each arm tugging at the waist of a different girl – both of which were giggling constantly as he whispered naughty things in their ears – while Julian and Rice had taken to playing a game of cards, where you each stuck a card to your forehead and tried to convince the other player that theirs was lower. They both looked like idiots with playing cards tucked into their hats – but Rice particularly looked the part as his fuzzy orange hat with earflaps kept sagging down on his forehead, causing his card to keep poking him in the eye.

The door swung open, and the second half of the crew, excluding Kinney and Broth who'd been designated as ship-keepers for the day, walked into the dim atmosphere of the bar.

Seko wasn't the only one to notice, however.

Sarin suddenly shifted so she was sitting on the cushy booth seat with her knees and threw her arms frantically into the air. "TEAMER!" she shouted with a giggle trapped in her voice.

The navigator, looked startled at her shout and looked towards the table with a questioning look. The rest of the crew who'd come in behind him – Eli, Camin, Vic and Miles – all laughed at the girl's drunken state and gathered at the bar.

"Hey! Where'd you get your hat? They said I need a hat, so I need to know where to get one." Her arms suddenly stopped flailing about and she turned back to Shachi who had entered into another laughter attack, "Wait – what if I don't want a hat?"

Teamer came and stood at the end of the table, his eyebrows raised so much that they disappeared beneath the edges of his colorful beanie decked out with the bright yellow pom-pom. "Is she drunk already?"

"Pen and Shachi got her up to six shots and then they all got giggly," Seko smiled and sipped at his beer.

Teamer shook his head, "Damn that was quick. She probably won't make it till sunset before passing out." His fingers drummed against the table and he left with a laugh. He joined the group of four at the bar, leaving Seko with the three drunken laugh boxes.

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><p>Law walked into the shabby bar just before sunset. He had been back in the small town near his submarine for some time now, but had been checking out the status of the Marines on the island, and the rumors of a tough crack down on all pirates docked at the archipelago.<p>

His cold eyes scanned the room, and immediately found Jean Bart sitting just inside the doorway, obeying his role as supervisor of the mischievous drunks that made up most of his crew. Next his eyes found a large group at the bar, nursing bottles of dark amber liquid and talking animatedly with each other.

In the center of the bar where a few tables had been pushed back, Shachi and Rice were dancing ridiculously with some local girls, and drawing a laughing audience of people. Penguin was nowhere to be found, but Law figured it was about that time of his drunken phase that he'd start to feel queasy and head to the bathroom.

Seko and Sarin were seated at a corner booth, the latter of which resting her head on her folded arms. Seko seemed to be keeping a close eye on her, and gave Law a nod of acknowledgment when he noticed the Dark Doctor looking his way.

Law, satisfied that his crew was all in one place instead of wandering about the town, stepped further into the shabby pub and made his way to the bar to order himself a glass of scotch, the oaky taste of which was always his favorite.

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><p>Seko looked down at Sarin as she hiccupped into her folded arms. "Sarin? You feeling alright?" The blonde felt buzzed but still sober enough not to lose any of his senses. Before Jean Bart had joined the crew – not even a week before Sarin did, though it felt much longer than that – Seko had always been the watch-dog for the crew. Even now that JB had taken the job, he couldn't bring himself to get completely smashed like the rest of his crew.<p>

Sarin's head popped up suddenly and faced Seko with her scarred eyelids closed. "You know what?" She asked with a waver in her voice. After another hour of giggle-fits with Shachi and Penguin, she had tired out and calmed down. She was now in a more pensive state – though her drunkenness was still completely obvious by the strange breaks and disjointed syllables that plagued her sentences.

"What?" Seko asked calmly.

"You guys…all you guys are like my sis – wait…what's the boy-version of sisters?"

Seko gave a small laugh and answered, "Brothers."

"Yeah! You guys are like my brothers," She ranted, "I never had that. They never wanted to be my brot – I mean – girl brothers. They never liked me. You guys like me though. You let me keep my name. They didn't. They took it away. I am Sarin. My name is Sarin and that's who I am – but they wouldn't call me that. It was the only thing I had when I woke up – the only thing in all the darkness, but I couldn't keep it. And stupid Hancock gave me a stupid name. Everyone else was named after special flowers – like Poppy or Lily or Chrisanthenemum," She muttered vaguely through about ten different flower names.

Seko stared at her intently, interested in the strange topic, despite its incoherency due to her intoxication.

"But they called me Hana. Just plain Flower. They took away my real name and called me a stupid flower. I don't even know why all their names are flowers. It's stupid. Flowers are stupid. They smell nice and everyone says they're pretty, but I can't see them and I think they're stupid." Sarin pouted and reached for a shot glass that still had a little bit of tequila left in it. "But you guys call me Sarin. I can be Sarin again. All the time on Amazon Lily I was afraid I would forget my real name…who would I be if I lost my name? I'd have nothing. No memory, no sight, no name. I wouldn't be a person anymore. I'd be a stupid flower on Amazon Lily that no one liked to look at."

Sarin tipped over her shot glass and rolled it back and forth between her hands.

Seko stared at the girl, piecing together all of her words.

They'd tried to strip away the last piece of her identity on that island – the famed Isle of Women. They'd taken her in, just to ignore her, it seemed, and take away the only thing she remembered of her past.

Seko pulled off his plain black baseball cap, revealing a head of short and blonde hat-hair. He ran a hand through the hair, only making it messier, and then replaced his hat.

He leaned forward on the table and propped his chin on one hand, "So they tried to call you Hana?"

Sarin nodded at him, her eyes still closed. Seko still hadn't gotten used to the fact that she could see without opening them, and had often held back a natural response to tell her to open her eyes before she ran into something. "But Poppy would always use my real name when no one was around."

"Who was Poppy?"

Sarin smiled wistfully, "She was nice. She took care of me and never made me feel bad like everyone else." The red head sighed, "I wish I could have seen her face…I bet she was pretty – just like her voice. She used to sing to me and her voice always reminded me of birds tweeting happily in the morning or the whisper of the wind through the dry grass in the summer. You guys would have liked her."

"She sounds nice. I bet you miss her."

Sarin shrugged, "I do, but she's gone now…probably somewhere where it's always summer, and she can sing with the birds all she wants. She doesn't have to worry about taking care of me anymore."

Seko frowned and couldn't help himself from asking, "Did she die?"

Sarin nodded and yawned, "But people like to say on Amazon Lily that the spirits of the dead live on in the flowers that they were named after…I wonder how that would work for me, since they just called me Hana…would my spirit be spread through all the different kinds of flowers, or is my name so vague that my spirit wouldn't be able to stick to any of them."

Seko shook his head, "You won't be dying anytime soon, so you shouldn't worry about where your spirit will be."

"That sounds good," Sarin said letting out another yawn. "I think I'm going to sleep."

At her words, Seko was going to get up so that she could spread out on the curving booth seat, but before he could carry out his plan, her head landed on his shoulder and she folded her arms around his as if it were a stuffed animal of some kind.

He stiffened under her touch, unsure of what to do. As her breathing deepened and quieted, he could tell she'd fallen completely asleep. He felt awkward with the girl tightening her pale and freckled arms around his.

Seko thought about pulling out of her grasp and pushing her to lie down on the booth, but every time he tried to tug his arm out of hers, she would tighten her hold.

"You look cozy," Miles smirked as he came to the table with a beer in his hands.

Seko rolled his eyes, "Just help me get her up. I'm gonna take her back to the sub."

Miles laughed and agreed, setting his bottle down on the table and reaching over to get a hold of Sarin. He was able to get a hand under her arm and pull her out of the booth at the same time Seko stood up and pulled his arm out of her grasp, only to quickly grab her waist.

They tried to wake her up so that she could walk on her own, but she would just groan and loll her head to the side.

Miles laughed, "You'll just have to carry her, mate. She's completely out of it."

Seko sighed and lifted the girl off the ground, one hand beneath her knees and the other wrapped under her back and holding onto her arm for security. "I'll probably be back in a bit," the blonde said as he started towards the door.

Miles waved and laughed and went back to the fun that was staring up on the makeshift dance floor.

Seko finally made it to the door and stepped out into the cool night. Soft but salty wind came off of the ocean, and swept through the sleepy cropping of buildings. Seko felt Sarin shiver in his arms and snuggle into his chest, doing a great job at making him feel even more awkward.

He tried to walk quickly back to the sub, but found that the walk seemed longer in the dark. The only light giving him any help was that of the few stars that managed to shine through the thick treetops and yellowish light from streetlamps that lined the street at intervals of ten to twenty yards.

Occasionally Sarin mumbled incoherently in her intoxicated sleep, but otherwise was quite still and calm. Finally they reached the small natural harbor where Teamer had docked the sub, and entered into a patch of starlight that trickled through a gap in the trees. The faint light seemed to highlight the girl's scars that crossed both eyelids, somehow making them more visible than usual.

He wondered how she had gotten them, and realized she probably wondered this as well.

Carefully, Seko stepped out onto the reaching branch that made a small bridge to the main deck of the sub. He hopped across, trying his best not to jostle the girl too much, and quickly came to the hatch door that led inside.

With no free hands, he was left to kick at the thick metal door and hope that someone heard his knocking. Even though the redhead was thin and light in his arms, the constant weight was starting to pull at his shoulder muscles.

He was about to set her down on the dock when the door swung open.

"Oi! Quit yer bangin', yeh drunk bastard," Broth said irritably as he poked his head out into the night. He was about to continue his gruff lecture when he saw his kitchen helper in the arms of Seko, "Oh – what happened?"

Seko laughed quietly, "She just passed out. Too many shots."

Broth ushered the pair inside and closed the door behind them. Seko took off for the stairs, quickly followed by the burly cook. "Yeh let the girl get that drunk?"

"For her first time, she did all right. She was giggly mostly – and then mumbled a bit before passing out." Seko's boots thudded noisily down the stairs as he made his way down to Sarin's room.

Once on the low deck, Broth got ahead of him and pushed open her door. The two men set her down on her mattress and threw her thin blanket over her sleeping body. In response to the familiar weight of her own blanket, she murmured softly and buried her head into her pillow, also succeeding in burrowing deeper into her bed.

"It's weird and amazing at the same time how well she fits in with us all," Seko said amusedly. He smiled softly at Sarin's blanketed figure as she fidgeted in her drunken sleep. He left the room, followed by Broth. The men closed Sarin's door and left her to her sleep.

Broth nodded at the blonde engine mechanic, "Aye – but yeh guys better be keepin' her safe while I'm not there. And I don't mean Jackal's version of safe, either."

"Don't worry – I kept an eye on her, and JB watched us all like a hawk. He probably would have tossed any guy who even looked at her wrong."

"Good," Broth said gruffly as the duo started back up the stairs, "Cause she's still a kid an all. I don' want her bein' put into trouble by yeh all."

Seko only smiled, and the two disappeared from the stairwell onto the middle deck of the mostly vacant submarine.

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><p>I woke to a pounding ache in my head, and the sounds of snores coming from the hallway that added to my headache like constant pounds of a hammer.<p>

I groaned and tried to burry myself deeper into my bedding, but had no luck drowning out the sound. I didn't dare shout at the criminal, figuring that my raised voice would cause me even more pain.

I sent out my shadowy haki-vision and found a sleeping outline of one of my crewmates sleeping propped up against the bottom step of the staircase. My vision, however, didn't stay focused long enough for me to figure out who it was and soon shot more lightning bolts of pain through my pounding head.

This must be what a hangover feels like, I thought bitterly to myself. Penguin didn't warn me how bad it would feel.

I cursed him in my mind – even my loud thoughts seemed to cause me pain – and pushed myself out of my bed. As I stood up and realized I'd slept in my clothes, a question bugged me…

How had I gotten to my room?

I searched my mind, but the events of last night were all blurry and plagued by laughter. I remembered something about hats, and then mentioning flowers a lot – but after that, nothing came to me.

I figured someone must have brought me back, and when I realized that both Prim and my satchel were missing from my room, I hoped that they were still at the bar with the few of the crew who hadn't come wandering in after their night of drinks.

My vision shot outward and upward, counting the number of outlines scattered amongst the ship. Though I counted at least ten people still in a sleeping stupor, almost none of them were sleeping in the hammocks of the men's quarters. I smirked when I recognized Bepo's overly large figure curled up just outside the hatch-door that connected the upper deck's hallway to the outer deck.

Finally I took a few steps towards the door, and shuffled my way towards the staircase. I stepped carefully over my sleeping crewmate on the bottom step, recognizing the sleep-talking voice of Eli, who'd probably come down here for whatever reason and passed out on the stairs before he could accomplish his initial goal.

I smirked and continued upward, rubbing my temples with my hands to hopefully massage away the pain of the hangover.

Almost zombie-like, I made my way to the galley, towards the smells of eggs being scrambled and toast browning in the oven. I was so distracted by the tantalizing smells of food that taunted my empty stomach that I didn't notice Broth until he spoke.

"Still an early riser – even with a hangover," Broth commented with his burly voice.

I flinched at the pain his voice inflicted upon my brain as it echoed through my aching head "Oww – not so loud," I moaned in agony. My temples threatened to explode at his responding laugh, and I cringed away from the cook even more.

"Better eat somethin' quick, then. Food's the best cure for a hangover – especially my food." Broth let out another laugh as he turned back to tend to the half-way scrambled eggs.

"Really?" I asked, leaning against the counter top beside the stove. I took a deeper breath of the food scents, and found that Broth had put something spicy into the egg mixture. Maybe hot sauce or something equally spicy.

My stomach growled greedily at me, and I suppressed the urge to stick my hand into the pan to grab some of it.

"Go sit down at the tables and I'll brin' yeh somethin' in a minute," Broth directed.

I nodded – which seemed to cause all my thoughts to roll chaotically through my head, causing more painful thunder to pound through my injured head – and pushed through the curtain that separated the kitchen and the galley.

I settled myself down at one of the longer crew tables and let my head fall on my crossed arms. I shut off my shadowy sight, to give my mental eyes a break and just did my best to relax.

For once I cursed my over-sensitive hearing – even though my "eyes" were turned off at the moment, I could still hear everything that was going on in the sub. Mostly it was a disarray of snores and sleep noises, but everything else seemed to be amplified. The constant whurring and grring of the idling engines, the sounds of steam being released into the cooler air of the boiler room, scrapes and bangs of metal on metal from Broth's station in the kitchen, the softer sound of the ocean current hitting the bottom of the sub. Everything was within my range of hearing.

It seemed that overly active senses and hangovers didn't mix very nicely.

I groaned and soon heard a pair of footsteps coming from the men's quarters towards me. I turned on my shadowy sight once again and recognized the small and mousy outline of Kinney. He shuffled quietly towards the galley, and as he stepped through the open doorway, I lifted my head to greet him. "Hey Kinney," I said in a loud whisper.

"Sarin," he said in a barely audible squeak. He tentatively moved towards the table I was at and sat down across from me. "How was your night?" he asked in that same painfully quiet voice.

I gave him a small smile and went back to massaging my temples, "Don't remember much of the details – but I remember laughing a lot."

"Bet you have a headache too," he added. He fidgeted with the sweatband he wore instead of a hat, tugging it upwards and downwards some to fix his unruly hair.

I nodded, "But Broth says he has a cure." I smiled and focused on Broth's outline in the kitchen. He seemed to be nearing completion of my breakfast, and I hoped it would work as well as he said it would.

Not much long after, Broth came out with a frying pan of deliciousness and piled it high onto plates for Kinney, himself and I. I scarffed it all down, not taking the time to actually figure out what he put into the eggs that made it so terribly spicy. I dowsed the fire of the unknown spices with toast and water and sat back while the other two ate through their plates.

After Broth's "Cure All" breakfast, I had to admit I felt a little bit better. The food in my system helped a lot, but Broth said that spices were the key to getting rid of a hangover. He said it was a secret he learned a long time ago and completely swore by it.

I wasn't sure about it, but I felt better none the less.

I helped him delve out helpings of spicy scrambled eggs and toast as crew members straggled into the galley one by one. Of the ten that were actually on the ship, only a few managed to make it to the galley.

It was probably close to eleven, but still only a small number had woken up.

I was practically force-feeding Julian when Jackal and his slightly square-ish hat – which he called his lumberjack hat – came whistling through the galley doors with a strange shadow wrapped around his neck.

He ceased his whistling and called to me, "I think you left someone at the bar, Sarin."

"Shut up, you dick," Julian groaned angrily at the honey-toned voice of Jackal which was being way too loud for the angry, hung-over member of the crew.

Jackal just laughed and pulled up beside me stretching out an arm.

The long shadow that was wrapped around his neck immediately gave a happy hiss and started slithering down his arm and towards my shoulder.

I smiled as Prim settled loosely around my neck and shoulders and flicked her tongue at my ear. "Thanks Jackal."

He leaned over and rested a bent elbow on the table in front of me, "So, I heard you left with Seko last night." His flirty voice sounded as though he was trying to imply something, but the intended message went completely over my head.

"Huh – so that's how I got back to the sub. Anyways, how are you so lively this morning? Everyone else has a hangover, or else is still trying to sleep it all off." I wondered vaguely if some people could be immune to hangovers – because if so, Jackal seemed to have this wonderful trait.

Jackal stood back up and gave a smirky laugh, "I have my own remedies for hangovers, which don't include salsa or hot sauce."

"Like what?" I asked curiously. Whatever he'd done, it seemed to have worked wonderfully.

"It's more of a…physical activity," he said, again with his flirty voice. His tone made me slightly less curious.

Julian sent out a back-handed slap into Jackal's gut. "He's talking about sex," Julian muttered bluntly, "I swear, that's his remedy for everything."

Jackal sent a smack back towards Jules, "Hey – it works doesn't it? I'm sitting pretty while you're still feeling the headache."

"I don't know how a manwhore like you gets so much action," Julian grumbled while rubbing his temples viciously.

"You're just too angry all the time to get any," Jackal mocked, not bothering to defend himself against the insult "manwhore" which I only had a vague idea of its meaning.

I shook my head at the both of them and got to my feet, "Well, this conversation has officially lost me. I'm going to find something for Prim to eat."

Julian gave me a vacant wave as he seemed to stare down at the plate of eggs in front of him, while Jackal gave a laugh and said, "You'll learn soon enough – feel free to ask me any questions."

I shook my head at his offer and sent him a wave over my shoulder. I disappeared into the kitchen, with Prim wrapped loosely around my upper body.

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><p><strong>AN: Hope you liked it xD Considering i've never been drunk before, i hope i did accurate guestimations. And i actually looked up cures for hangovers, and some guys say that sex really does get rid of it lol when i read that i immediately thought of Jackal xD**


	13. Chapter 12

**Hey - so here's the next chapter lol for some reason it was harder for me to write, but i finally got it out.**

**Shout-outs! **

**Elielephant** - haha well I've talked to you about the romance situation, but sadly I still haven't decided what i'm going to do. But regardless of whether there's romance or not, there will still be lots of flirty Jackal scenes to look forward too lol

**Area the Ninja** - Thanks for the review, and i'm glad you like it so far! And concerning your guess i probably shouldn't say lol but you're on the right track.

**Alrighty then - here's Chapter 12!**

Enjoy~!

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><p><strong>Chapter 12<strong>

I was on my way to my room on the low deck, when Law's voice caught my attention and spun me around to face him. It was almost like he had materialized out of the walls, because one minute the hallway was empty, and the next he had popped up behind me. I don't think even Prim – who was still wrapped around my torso – had noticed him until he spoke.

I tried not to let him see how startled I was, but I'm sure he could easily read it in my expression. "Yes Captain?" I asked, calming the jump in my voice.

He spoke with a smirk clearly in his voice, "Go find Rice, and wake him up. We have an important errand to run." Without waiting for my confirmation of his orders, he spun around and strolled off quietly to lurk somewhere else on the ship.

I shook my head at that sneaky Captain of mine and continued onto my room. I had originally planned on taking a short nap before going back into town to find out what had become of the few stragglers of the crew that had yet to come back, but I guessed my plans had been changed.

Quickly, I ushered Prim to slide off my shoulders while I pulled off my jumpsuit. I was left in my leggings and a thin strapped tank-top. I wanted to wash my hair in the bathroom sink really quickly before going to find Rice, and didn't want to get the baggy jumpsuit wet.

The water from the sink's faucet was cold, but I dealt with it. I drenched my hair with water and quickly lathered a fruity shampoo into it. I was done in less than five minutes, and combed through my hair with my fingers after wringing it out.

I left it to air-dry while I mechanically re-did my thin braid on the left side of my head. It was something Poppy had always done to my hair when I was smaller, and the small braid had soon become a part of my daily routine.

Lastly I pulled on the jumpsuit once again, after switching out my top for a clean T-shirt, and gave Prim an affectionate pat on the head. Considering I didn't have my satchel or any arrows, I didn't feel like bringing her with me on whatever errands Law was dragging me on.

I hurried out the door and sent my shadowy sight to look for Rice's scrawny figure somewhere on the ship. I found him while scanning the men's sleeping quarters, and hurried off in that direction.

I knocked lightly on the door before pushing it open, "Rice – are you in here?"

He was already somewhat awake, but as he heard my voice he fell out of his hammock, "Sarin! Don't just walk in here – I'm not dressed or anything," the scrawny man stuttered embarrassedly. His outline scrambled to another corner of the room.

I waved my splayed fingers in front of my scarred eyes, "Calm down. I can't see whatever you're trying to hide. Indecency doesn't affect the blind."

"Still! It's weird," he mumbled as he started to pull on his clothes, "What do you want?"

I leaned against the doorframe, "Law told me to wake you up. He wants you and me to run errands with him or something…he didn't really specify."

Rice groaned as he zipped up the front of his jumpsuit, "Great. If he wants me that means there's probably some doctoring to do…I better go get together my surgical kit."

I nodded and followed him out the door, going with him to the infirmary and waiting outside the sliding door while he gathered all of the necessary supplies he thought he might need.

"Ready?" I asked as he stepped out the door carrying a duffel bag that hug from one shoulder.

He nodded, "Yep – he's probably on the main deck waiting for us."

I sent out my haki-vision, and sure enough, Law's tall and lanky figure stood waiting with Bepo by his side out on the main deck. "Yeah – he's there. Let's go," I said.

We walked quickly to the main deck – Rice's boots thudded along nosily on the metal floor while my bare feet padded along silently. We spun the wheel that opened the thick metal door and stepped out into the warm and soapy sunshine.

Once at Law and Bepo's side, Captain gave a slight nod towards us and led the way off the ship. The three of us followed quickly after, Bepo falling into step at Law's right, while Rice and I walked side by side a few steps behind.

I was curious as to where we were going, and why Law wanted me to tag along – but I figured he brought me along to get more experience at whatever this errand was. My best guess was seeing about getting supplies for the ship, but then that didn't make sense if Rice had to bring along his medical supplies.

I highly doubted that Law was just going to go around giving free medical care to anyone he came across, so I figured there was a specific reason behind Rice's presence.

I finally forced myself to break up the silence between the four of us, "Uh, Captain? Where are we going, exactly?" The curiosity was nagging at me.

He spoke with a smirk in his cold voice, "We're going to see about getting your memory back."

It took a minute for his words to sink in, "Wait…really? You know how to do that?" I asked with rising excitement in my voice. I almost couldn't believe what Law had said.

"Not me, but someone on the island," Law corrected.

"So you really think they can help? They can really get my memories back?"

He nodded without turning to me, "In exchange for our medical services, he's agreed see what he can do about digging up your lost memories."

I laughed happily, feeling my heart cry out in joy at the thought of finally figuring out who I was. After nine long years, I might remember more than just my name.

But Rice seemed skeptical. He scratched the back of his head and asked, "And how does this guy think he can do that?"

Law shrugged, "He is a so-called magician, and claims to be able to hypnotize people."

Rice let out a skeptic laugh, "Magician? Seriously?"

Law let out an exasperated sigh, "It's not as if I believe he's a man of real magic – but I know that hypnosis sometimes works with cases such as these. Hawkins said he could help – and he's in no condition to lie to me." Law spoke the last part with a chilling viciousness hidden in his tone.

I hoped that this Hawkins guy knew what he was talking about, for the sake of my missing memories, and the wellbeing of the man himself. I had a feeling Law did not like to be tricked in any way, shape, or form – and I was willing to bet that being less than expected was just as bad a crime as lying to the Surgeon of Death.

My curiosity now shifted to this Hawkins, person, I wondered how Law knew him. I also wondered about this hypnosis technique. The only thing I knew about it was that some types of snakes lulled their prey into a relaxed state by hypnotizing them with their eyes or bodily secretion before attacking them. Hopefully the hypnotism I would be under would be less vicious – but if Hawkins was an acquaintance of Law's, then I probably couldn't be too careful.

We all walked in silence once again. I stretched out my shadowy sight to see all around us, taking in the strange attributes of the Sabaody Mangroves that made up this faux-island. Large shadowy trees, towered over us, blocking the sun's afternoon rays from reaching us; the ground, which was made up of gargantuan tree roots covered with patches of dirt and grass, kept birthing soap bubbles that floated into the air like helium filled balloons, which would pop upon reaching the treetops. The strange place was wonderfully mysterious, and I wondered if the tree roots actually reached down to the ocean floor as I was told they did.

Curious, I sent my vision downward, seeing through the solid ground beneath my feet to the waters below us. The gnarled and winding roots stood stationary in the water, hosting shelter for many types of shadowy outlines that swam and drifted through the waters. I smiled to myself as I recognized the outline of an angelfish the size of a whale drifting lazily like the shadow that I saw it as through the gaps of the tree roots.

"What are you grinning at?" Rice's grainy voice shattered my concentration, pulling me back to land.

I sighed at him, "A huge fish. It was swimming through the tree roots below us."

"Pen was right," Rice said as he shook his head at me, "Your vision is pretty creepy."

I pursed my lips at him, "It's not creepy…just unique."

"Whatever you say," Rice's voice smirked.

I retaliated with a light punch to his arm and quickly darted out of his reach so that he couldn't hit back. I closed the gap that separated our group into two with a few jogging steps, and slowed down at Bepo's side.

The large bear looked down at me, and feeling less intimidated by the bear than Law, I decided to ask, "So who is this Hawkins guy? Just someone from the island?"

Bepo shook his head, "No, he's a pirate – one of the Eleven Supernova's like Law."

I nodded, vaguely remembering one of the newspaper articles that Elder Nyon read to me that mentioned the Supernovas. They were eleven rookies to the Grand Line who'd all gotten themselves large bounties. Elder Nyon said that Law had one of the highest of the group, topped by only a few others – from what I remembered, Straw-Hat Luffy and some other man named Kidd Something-or-Other were on the list of higher bounties.

Though Hawkins name didn't sound particularly familiar, at least I knew who we were dealing with beforehand.

I hoped desperately that he really could get my memories back – even one small scene of a memory would be amazing! I'd be happy with just a snippet – or maybe a memory from when I could see with my own eyes.

I knew by the scars that crossed both of my eyes that I had probably been blinded sometime during my short life, and that it hadn't been since birth – so maybe one of the memories would be of colors, or faces, or scenery.

I smiled at the thought and fought to keep my excitement down.

Finally, after walking along this dirt pathway for at least twenty silence filled minutes, a small cropping of buildings sprang up from the root-ground ahead of us, harboring at least eleven outlines of people. The outlines seemed to be pacing anxiously, or else standing stiffly in wait.

"They're waiting for us," I said as I turned to Law.

He nodded at me, "Do they look like they have plans to ambush us?"

I scoured the buildings, but only say nervous shadows wandering about, "No – they look nervous more than anything."

"Hmm," Law thought aloud, "Hopefully Hawkins hasn't taken a bad turn during the night. I only agreed to help him if he helped us first – he's no use to us if he can't move." Law sighed, but kept walking.

As we approached the edge of the first building a plump shadow greeted us, stepping out of the shadowy background to face us. He had a rather large and plump figure, and his head was oddly-shaped due to a hood that covered it and gave his outline a point at the top. I almost laughed at the odd shape, but forced myself to be kept silent.

The plump shadow gave the four of us a nod of acknowledgment and waddled off ahead of us without a word. We took this as a cue to follow, and wound up in a small building about in the middle of the cluster of buildings. It looked to be an abandoned shop of some kind, but what really bothered me were the intense smells that seemed to seep from the walls. Spicy insence mixed with dust and the scent of stale blood. It was an odd mixture, and I wasn't the only on affected by it.

Bepo brought his paw to his short snout, "Smells bad."

"Agreed," I whispered back to him.

"Bepo, stay out here," Law commanded smoothly as he stepped into the entrance of the smelly shop.

I pursed my lips at the bear, "Lucky."

"Sorry," he apologized with a lowered head.

I gave a small laugh and plunged into the wall of stench that greeted me once inside, with Rice following right behind me.

The odd mixture of smells was intensified once we stepped through another doorway blocked by a thick curtain. I held back a gag and quickly brought my hand to cover my nose and mouth to hopefully block out some of the assaulting stench that was now mostly incense that made the air feel as dense as a brick wall.

Rice gave my back a few pats as if that would somehow relive my lungs from breathing the horrible spicy air and calm my coughing fit. I did my best to shrug out of his touch and mutter a quick, "I'm fine."

"Hmm," a warm-toned yet emotionless voice spoke from somewhere in the crowded space. I shot out my Haki-vision, which had previously been too distracted to take much notice of anything, let alone any of the other inhabitants of this enclosed space. A tall outline with a muscular build and a head of long shadowy hair that rustled about with the outline's movements sat on a creaking cot that was pushed up against the wall. The shadow's legs were too long to keep his feet on the floor, so he had them straightened out and propped up on a small box or chest of some kind that was at least equal to the height of the cot.

The long shadow – Hawkins I presumed – kept his hands constantly moving. Due to the sound of laminated cards slapping rapidly against each other, I assumed he was shuffling large cards of some kind, and based on the size of the cards, they were no ordinary playing cards.

"Hawkins," Law acknowledged with his chilling voice.

"Law," Hawkins said back, his warm voice issuing no sounds of surprise - his voice sounded as though it could be comforting and reassuring, but at the moment it had the same intense qualities as Law's voice, "and crew mates."

Hawkins laid down a card on one of his thighs, "Interesting – so the girl is the one with amnesia, correct?"

I took an experimental breath, and once I confirmed that I would be able to breathe without choking on the air, I answered, "Yes – for nine years now."

"Hmm," Hawkins hummed in thought, "Well, sit down and we'll see about stirring up some old memories." Hawkins gingerly pulled his legs up and let his knees bend. I noticed a faint wince of pain as he did this, but otherwise, Hawkins seemed to keep to himself about any pain he was feeling.

The Supernova patted the box in front of him, resulting in a hollow but sturdy sound, motioning for me to sit.

I nodded and walked wordlessly over to the chest, being careful to avoid his legs, lest I unintentionally cause him more pain. My nerves were going haywire, and any notion I had of keeping my hopes down went out the window.

My hands twisted nervously in my lap, "So, what do I need to do?"

"First," Hawkins started as he went back to shuffling his deck of large cards, "Tell me your name. I need to become more familiar with your soul before the actual hypnotism."

I nodded and answered, "Sarin."

"Sarin," he repeated as he sucked in a breath. He laid out three cards onto his lap and tapped them absently in thought as he deciphered their meaning. "Hmm, well you are a sheltered soul, but curious to know of what you missed. The past that you know of was a lonely one, but your present is filled with many new and interesting faces. Is this correct?"

I felt my jaw hanging slightly open, "Yes, actually…"

He nodded and laid down two more cards atop the other three. "For your future I see indecision and misunderstanding, but the specifics of which cannot be revealed." He hummed once again and suddenly looked to Law and Rice's outlines standing beside the curtained doorway. "I'd suggest as few people in the room as possible. We need as little distractions for Sarin as possible."

Law nodded and told Rice to wait outside with Bepo.

Rice nodded and gave me a comforting tap on the shoulder before leaving on Law's order. Law propped himself up against the wall and spoke to Hawkins with his sharp voice, "Go on, Mr. Hawkins."

I faced my vision back to Hawkins. Though Law's presence was still cold and uneasy, I was glad he was there with me – being alone with another captain of a Supernova pirate crew wasn't very appealing, even if Hawkins was trying to help get my memories back.

Hawkins spoke, his voice more soothing than before, "Sarin. Relax all the muscles in your body. Because you can't see, I'll have to do this through just my voice."

I nodded and let my body relax. I flipped off my haki-sight and let my head hang down slightly as I listened to Hawkins' further instructions.

"Good. Listen to the sound of my voice. Let my words be the anchor that ties you to reality and let everything else fall away. Hear nothing but my voice. Feel nothing but my voice. Breath long and deep breaths. In and out. In and out."

The shadowy world that usually surrounded me all blended into an encompassing black canvas within my mind. I took deep breaths and let my body obey instinctively to his voice, completely shutting down my unnecessary thoughts.

"Breath in and out. Now I'm going to count to ten – and when you hear me snap my fingers, you're going to fall into a deep sleep. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten." Hawkins fingers snapped together as soon as the last syllable of "ten" left his lips, and my mind plunged into the abyss of unconsciousness.

Law watched silently and motionlessly as Sarin's chin dropped to rest on her breast bone and her shoulders slumped forward. He thought she might topple off of the fabric covered chest that she sat on, but the red-head somehow managed to keep her balance while still be completely relaxed.

Hawkins waited a few seconds more before breaking the almost spellbound silence that filled the room, "Sarin, can you hear me?"

The girl didn't stir, but words fell from her mouth with no feeling or life to them, "Yes."

"Think back to the first memory that you have. Can you picture it in your mind?"

"Yes."

"Can you explain all that you remember? Every detail, every emotion, every feeling."

Her brain almost seemed to groan in thought as she brought back the first memory. "It's dark. I'm surrounded by the sound of waves and can feel sand all over my body, but I can't see anything. I lift my head up and try to open my eyes, but they won't open. I rub at them, thinking that something must be tied around my eyes, nothing's there.

"The voice tells me that I'm blind."

Hawkins gently interrupted her explanation, "Can you tell me about the voice?"

Her head shook slightly, "No. It's in my head, but isn't mine. I wonder what the voice is, but then realize that I don't know how I got to this beach, or where I came from or who I was. But the voice spoke again and told me that my name was Sarin."

"Then I realized that there's another voice – one outside of my head – calling to me and asking if I'm okay. She asks what's wrong with my eyes so I tell her I'm blind. I wonder why it is that she's startled by the look of my eyes. I wonder what's wrong with them and why I'm blind, but as the new woman's voice carries me away I fall asleep."

"Okay Sarin, that's good," Hawkins stated with his guiding voice. "Good – now can you go back to that beach? Imagine yourself back on that beach with the waves running past your feet and the damp sand between your toes."

She hummed in response to his words and replied, "Okay."

"Alright," he started again, "Now look up and try to see past that first memory. Try to remember who you got to that beach. Try to remember where you came from."

Sarin's breathing immediately got louder and more frustrated, "No – I can't. There's nothing there. There's nothing before this. Just the beach. It all starts on the beach." Her fists were clenching and unclenching rapidly, her skin straining white as it stretched over her knuckles.

Hawkins looked up at Law for a moment and said in a whisper, "I'm going to try to put her in a deeper sleep. I think some of her consciousness is preventing us from delving further into her mind."

Law nodded, not wanting to speak, risking all the work Hawkins had done up until now.

Hawkins took deep breath – again, Law noticed – accompanied by a wince of pain that he tried very hard not to let show.

"Sarin. Listen to my voice now. Keep breathing – in and out. In and out. In and out. Let everything but my voice fall away. Let it fill your mind and be your tie to the world you're leaving behind."

Sarin let her breathing calm down and her fidgeting hands relax in her lap once again. She moved softly with each breath, her head hanging lower with each passing minute of Hawkins' repeated words to "breathe in and out".

"I'm going to guide you to a deeper sleep. Imagine a stairway descending down from your feet. It goes down so far that you can't see the bottom. I want you to walk slowly down that staircase. One step. Two steps. Three steps. Four steps. Five steps. Six steps. Seven steps. Eight steps. You keep going down and down and down."

"You keep at an even pace, going down and down and down. Each step brings you closer to the bottom, and now as you're almost at the last step down, you see a door in front of you. I want you to reach out and turn the knob of that door. I want you to push it slowly open and step through with small steps. Let the door close behind you." Hawkins snapped his fingers abruptly.

Sarin's figure seemed unchanged.

"Sarin can you hear me?" Hawkins asked softly.

The girl didn't answer.

"Sarin, are you there?" Hawkins asked, this time struggling to keep his voice calm.

Finally, Sarin's voice spoke through partially closed lips, "Yes. I'm here."

"Sarin, tell me what you see. Where are you?"

She was silent. She didn't speak.

Law did not like the long pauses in Sarin's speech, but didn't interrupt despite his strong urge to do so.

Sarin's voice spoke again, sounding distant and detached, "I'm nowhere. There's a wall."

Hawkins lips tightened to a thin line, "Can you push the wall down? Try to break it."

The pause preceding her response was shorter this time, "I don't like it here. The wall is scary. It won't tip over."

"Try, Sarin. Try to break down the wall."

Law watched as Sarin seemed to sway in her seat. Her body wavered and then she sucked in a sharp breath, "Who is that? Her voice is strange…why is she here?"

Law's brow creased as Hawkins spoke with a strained alarm, "There's someone with you?"

Sarin's head nodded slowly, "Yes…and she sounds scary."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Sorry for the cliffhanger haha but i felt that the chapter was getting too drawn out for my liking. Anywho, I want your guys opinions on something:

How does a Vivi (after time-skip) fic sound? I got a good idea the other day, but wasn't too sure if Vivi's really a character that people care about lol I've got a poll on my profile - so if you could give me your answers through that, a PM, or review I would really appreciate it :) ~thanks


	14. Chapter 13

** Hey! Well, here's the next chapter lol hope you like**

**Shout Outs:**

**Elielephant: **Thanks so much - your reviews always manage to make me smile lol I'm really glad that you're liking this story so much, and i'm glad i'm not doing too bad at the details haha. I also made sure to add some fun Jackal-ness to this chapter, so enjoy haha

**Elysabeth01: **Haha wow, thanks! I'm so glad you like it so far :)

**MusicOfMadness: **at least she's not hearing voices...oh wait lol

**motherloosegoose: **Thanks! I'm glad you're liking it so much!

**ImmatureChild: **haha well here's the next update - hope you like it :)

**Alrighty now, lets get on with it lol**

**~Enjoy!~**

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><p><strong>Chapter 13<strong>

"Can you talk to the girl?" Hawkins' calm and lulling voice asked. He was staring intently at Sarin as she sat stoically on the chest before him, her figure slumped forward and motionless.

She didn't answer at first, letting the air fill with silence and the thick scents of the incense.

Finally her abnormally lifeless voice spoke out, "She wants me to go…she doesn't like you bringing me here."

"Sarin," Hawkins said slowly, "Can you ask the girl who she is?"

After a slight pause Sarin responded, "She's getting angry…"

"Just stay calm, Sarin – keep listening to my voice. Can you see or sense who this girl is?"

Sarin's breaths seemed to grow louder, as if she were panting, "She…she's scary but…she's familiar…"

"Familiar how?"

More silence and then, "She has the same outline as I do. Is…who is she?"

Law's lips tightened into a thin line. He guessed that Sarin was seeing the personality that took over during their attack on the marine base.

She was seeing her other, more deadly self that he presumed had locked itself away deep within the subconscious of his newest crewmember.

Hawkins seemed at a momentary loss of how to proceed, so Law took a risk.

"Sarin? Do you recognize my voice?" The Surgeon of Death asked coolly.

Sarin's body seemed to recoil as if she had just been smacked upside the head, but she answered quickly, "Law…my Captain." She sucked in a harsh and almost painful sounding breath, "His voice is cold…she doesn't like it. She…she doesn't like cold voices."

"Can you ask her why she's locked away your memories?" Law asked, hoping to get some answers about the mysterious personality inside of the redhead.

"She's getting angry…cold voices shouldn't talk to her. She wants you to go away," Sarin said with her almost lifeless voice. For a second Law thought he heard a small waver in her tone – as if the other girl inside her head was speaking through her.

Hawkins picked up Law's train of thought and re-asked the question, "Please Sarin – ask her why she locked away your memories."

Sarin seemed to calm down a little at the sound of Hawkins' warmer voice, and after a pause she replied, "She says I don't need them…she says she took them so I could be new. I'm different from my past. Different from her. Newer." A shiver rippled through her body as she kept in her hunched position on the chest, "She wants me to leave now…she doesn't want to talk. She doesn't want me to be here. She's frustrated and mad and…and…"

Hawkins takes a quiet breath, "And what?"

"And," Sarin stutters again, "And she says she'll hurt you if you don't take me away…kill you if I don't leave…can I please leave now?" Sarin's voice wavers with a slight tinge of fear as another chill runs down her spine, causing her to flinch.

"Alright Sarin, I'll take you away. Listen to my voice," Hawkins spoke slowly and calmly, "I'm going to count down to one, and when you hear my snap, you're going to wake up, okay?"

"Okay," Sarin said with a small breath of relief.

Hawkins counted from ten all the way down to one, and then snapped his fingers.

* * *

><p>I my head jerked up suddenly, and my haki-vision threw itself back on.<p>

The room was unchanged – Law still leaned against the doorframe behind us while Hawkins faced me, holding his large deck of cards still in his hands – but I did notice a small feeling of tension in the air alongside the odd combination of incense and stale blood. "So?" I asked the still room, "What's wrong? What happened?"

Law shook his head and pushed himself off of the wall, "We'll talk back on the ship – at the moment, Hawkins needs some medical attention, or else he won't live to do his next tarot reading. Sarin, please send Rice back in here and go with Bepo back to the ship. Don't leave the sub until I come back."

I really wanted to hit the pause button for a moment and ask what happened – considering my mind held no new memories of a past life, I hazarded a guess that the hypnotism was unsuccessful – but I realized that Hawkins was in a bad condition and it was only getting worse the longer we prolonged this. So instead of protesting like I so desperately wanted, I nodded, muttered an "Aye Captain", and carefully stood from the small chest before the injured Supernova captain.

I left the room quickly and pushed noisily through the beaded doorway, feeling slightly relieved once out of the thick and almost un-breathable air of the small room. Bepo and Rice were standing outside the building, the shorter and less bear-like of the two rummaging through his medical bag out of boredom. As I stepped through the doorway and back out into the sunshine, Rice turned to face me with, I imagined, some sort of expectant look. "Well?" he asked.

I shook my head, "That's what I asked…anyways, Law wants you in there now."

Rice sighed, but hefted his large duffle bag over one shoulder, "Alright, then." He took a deep breath, as if readying himself to dive underwater, and entered the shop.

I then turned to Bepo's large outline and echoed Rice's sigh, "Captain said we could go back to the sub. He and Rice are gonna work on Hawkins now."

"Okay," the bear said with his strange high voice. The two of us set off for the grove where Teamer had docked our submarine, me with more questions than answers, and the bear with an indifferent and carefree bounce in his step.

* * *

><p>After the twenty minute walk back to the sub, my brooding attitude still hadn't quite evaporated yet. I wanted to know what happened, and why Law and Hawkins were so tense! Did the hypnotism completely fail? Was Law angry with Hawkins for not getting any results? Had I said something strange while I was hypnotized?<p>

So many questions buzzed around inside of my head…and with all the empty space where my early memories should have been, the questions had lots of room to stretch out and grow.

As Bepo and I stepped through the thick metal door and entered into the upper floor of the submarine, we were greeted by loud and rowdy sounds of the crew echoing up to us from lower in the submarine. I shot out my shadowy sight and saw most of their outlines gathered around one of the crew tables in the galley, and started towards them all.

Bepo followed close behind me, but I figured this was because he was bored and the Captain was not around to give him small orders or commands. The two of us made our way down the twisting staircase and as we reached the mid-deck, I could catch a few snippets of a conversation the whole crew seemed to be having.

"I bet she doesn't even remember the conversation," Teamer's voice spoke skeptically. I could hear his fingers drumming against the table.

"So?" Penguin's voice countered, "I don't remember it either – that doesn't mean it isn't important."

"Do you know how retarded you sound?" Julian mumbled.

"Shut up, Jules, she'll love it!" Pen argued.

"I highly doubt that," Seko's simple and calm voice said after a small sigh.

My interest was completely peaked, having assumed that the crew was talking about me, and I could no longer listen quietly to their conversation. I stepped into the doorway and asked, "What am I supposed to love?"

The whole gathering of eleven shadowy outlines practically jumped at the sound of my voice, and Penguin's large-hatted outline quickly moved to cover something that I assumed was on the table. "Hey, Sarin," Pen said with a small laugh, "Where've you been all day?"

I sighed and shrugged my shoulders, "Trying to get my memories back, but I don't think it worked."

"Sorry to hear that," Seko said from his seat at the table.

"BUT!" Shachi blurted out, "We got you something that'll make you happy!"

"Maybe," Teamer mumbled, keeping the rhythm of his tapping fingers consistent.

I stepped further into the room, a small smile on my lips, "Really? What is it?"

"First," Penguin started, "Close your eyes." I raised an eyebrow at this, and he sighed at me, "You know what I mean – turn off that creepy, shadow vision of yours."

I stuck my tongue out at him after mumbling, "It's not creepy," but did as he said. I flipped off my shadowy sight, and my world of dark outlines vanished into a thick black fog. "Okay, I can't see anything," I confirmed.

I heard the rustling of someone's coarse jumpsuit and stifled laughs as something was placed on my head. Two edges sank down my scalp and rested behind my ears. I knew it was a headband by the feel of it, but what I didn't understand was all the laughter that the guys were trying to quiet.

"Your very own hat! You're officially part of the crew!" Penguin said with a beaming smile in his voice. My hands quickly went to the sides of my head and I felt the headpiece. It was fuzzy and soft to the touch. I couldn't help but grin at my crew.

"Technically it's a head band, not a hat," Julian muttered.

"Shut up – it's the same thing," Shachi defended with a laugh caught in his voice.

My fingers slid upwards, but half-way up the furry headband, I felt thicker pieces of fuzzy fabric sprout from both sides of the headband. My brow creased as my fingers traced the triangular shapes of these pieces of fabric…

A frown took control of my lips, killing the happy smile that had once been there.

"Please tell me these aren't EARS!" I growled at Penguin.

At this, the whole group besides Bepo – who had started sniffing the foreign object atop my head – burst into laughter. I was surprised to find that even Seko and Kinney were laughing along.

"They match your jacket!" Jackal said between laughs, "Leopard ears!"

My shadowy sight flipped itself back on just in time to see a familiar blob-like outline hurtling towards me. I caught my jacket at it came to me and I scowled at the honey-toned man who had thrown it. "Put it on!" Jackal pleaded mockingly, "We wanna see how they look with the jacket."

My scowl spanned across the entire room – even at Broth who was trying to keep his composure as he watched from the corner of the room. "How did you even get this? I thought I locked my room…"

Jackal sighed, laughter still audible in his voice, "I know where Law keeps the spare key – now hurry up and put it on."

Miles snorted with laughter and adjusted his cowboy hat, "Wow, I think this is the first time you're asking a girl to put ON clothes, mate. I never thought I'd see the day."

More laughter erupted from the crew and I begrudgingly obliged their earlier command. I slipped into my jacket and zipped it up. I held my hands out and spun around for them, "There – see?"

"I knew this was a good idea!" Penguin laughed.

I shook my head at them, "It isn't! Who's going to take me seriously when I'm dressed like a cat?"

"Oh don't worry about that! They'll take you seriously once you start kickin' ass," Shachi said as he leaned against my left shoulder.

"Yeah!" Penguin added, attaching himself to my other side, "They'll all come to fear the cat ears." He poked the fuzzy ears that sported the same troublesome leopard spots as my jacket.

I shook my head at them and ignored the renewed laughter in the room, "Can I take these off now?"

"NO!" Pen shouted, "You can't! That is your hat, and you're not allowed to get a new one!"

"Says who?"

Shachi laughed, "Says us! Just wear it, Sars!"

A chorus of agreeing "Yeah"s rippled through the room and I sighed in defeat, "Fine…I'll wear the stupid ears."

The guys cheered in victory, and Bepo said happily from the doorway, "I like the spots."

I shook my head again and muttered, "Of course you do."

"Now that our newest crewmember is officially a Heart Pirate, I say we all get wasted to celebrate!" One of the guys – either Vic or Camin who I had yet to tell the differences in their voice – shouted happily, rising another cheer out of the crew.

I tore out of Shachi and Penguin's clutches, "Sorry guys – I can't yet. Captain wanted me to stay on the sub until he got back."

"Bah," Shachi groaned, "That's no fun."

"Hmm, well I guess we could just wait," Penguin sighed, scratching the back on his neck.

I smiled and shook my head at them, "How about you guys get started without me and I'll get to the bar when I'm free."

Jackal suddenly popped up beside me and slid an arm around my waist, "Great idea – I'll save you a seat on my lap."

Multiple hands shot out to smack the flirty man attached to my waist, but I could only laugh, "I think I'll pass."

"Harsh," Jackal said as he mockingly clutched at his heart, "The game of cat and mouse continues."

I ignored his jab at my cat ears and continued to convince the guys to go ahead to the bar without me. Eventually the guys all left, heading off towards the bar for another night of partying. It was only three in the afternoon, but I figured their nights started early and ended late. Bepo, Broth and I were the last ones left on the ship. While Bepo went off to lounge about in the sun while waiting for Captain and Rice to come back, Broth and I worked on the galley and kitchen.

I shrugged out of my warm jacket, again cursing the guys for making me put it on to "complete my transformation" as Shachi put it before leaving for town, and let it hang off of a bench. I started wiping down the tables as Broth stood in the curtained doorway that led to the kitchen, "So where'd yeh disappear to before? Yeh left the kitchen and next I heard someone saw yeh leavin' the sub with Law an company," the gruff cook asked.

I nodded and answered, "We went to see someone about getting my memories back – Captain Hawkins."

"Really? Huh," Broth mused, "Didn't know Captain knew any o' the other Supernovas."

I shrugged, "I don't think he did, really, but they made some kinda bargain – if Hawkins used hypnotism on me to try to jog some of my memories, Law would fix up Hawkins…he was in really bad shape. Probably close to death."

"That's probably 'cause of the battle with Kizaru. The Marine Admirals recently struck the island hard – a little before the whole deal with Whitebeard and Marineford. While Law an Supernovas Luffy and Kidd fought with Shichibukai Kuma, I heard that the other supernovas fought with Admiral Kizaru…Hawkins musta gotten hurt." Broth pushed back the curtain and went to stand in front of the sink he started washing dishes from earlier in the afternoon, "So how'd it go, then? Get any of yeh're memories back?"

I sighed and shook my head, "No…I don't even remember the hypnotism procedure. One minute I'm listening to Hawkins talk, and the next my head snaps up and the room is full of uneasy tension."

Broth gave a small laugh, "It looks like yeh keep blackin' out durin' important things."

"Looks like it," I sighed, "Hopefully Law will tell me what happened…maybe I was just immune to hypnotism."

Broth's shadowy outline nodded, making his short chef's had flop up and down on his head, "Might be – I heard that stronger minds have a harder time with the hypnotizin' stuff."

I sighed and hoped that this "might be" wasn't true. I wanted to know what happened while I was seemingly unconscious – and I really hoped that Law had at least a few answers for me. I'd like to think that I was getting closer to remembering what had been lost for so long.

* * *

><p>It had taken probably an hour and a half of operating, but Trafalgar Law and Rice were finally done with the other Supernova.<p>

Blood stained the cot Hawkins had been lying on, as well as both the Surgeon of Death and his assistant. Rice was wrapping up bloodied instruments in crimson stained towels so that they could be washed back on the sub, while Law was re-checking the bandages on the other Supernova captain.

Hawkins had gone through the entire tedious procedure with no more than the occasional gasp or groan, which was a considerable feat when you took into account that Law used no painkillers or sedatives.

But despite the pain that Hawkins felt almost constantly for the past hour and a half, he was now going to make a full recovery…as long as he didn't rush himself, that is.

Law smiled, feeling buzzed by the sight of his fellow Supernova's blood drenching his gloves and the small signs of pain on Hawkins end. Usually doctors didn't like their patients to feel pain…but the Surgeon of Death preferred it.

Law smirked – pain made the experience more enjoyable. What good was cutting into someone when they couldn't feel it?

Law looked to one of Hawkins men who had stayed quietly in the corner throughout the whole procedure, "Make sure he drinks plenty of water, and doesn't exert himself for at least two weeks. That is, unless he truly wants to die – then, by all means, live it up."

Law pulled off his bloody gloves, which made a snapping sound as they were yanked from his long fingers, and threw them into a waste bin beside the door. The Death Doctor looked down to his subordinate, "Shall we go?"

Rice nodded as he finished packing up the bloodied medical instruments, "Yes Captain." Rice quickly pulled the medical bag over his shoulder and followed after his Captain, who had strolled nonchalantly out the beaded doorway.

Hawkins let out a sigh as the two left and grabbed his tarot cards from the chest beside his cot. He shuffled through them and pulled one off the top.

He smiled thinly and told his first mate – the quiet hulk of a man who'd been in the corner for most of his surgery, "It seems my chances of survival have gone from 5% to 89%."

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><p><strong>Sorry, i think that was kinda short compared to usual = well i'll make sure to make the next one longer lol with more drunken pirate shenanigans lol**


	15. Chapter 14

**Alrighty - here's Chapter 14~! Hope you like it :)**

**Shout-outs:**

**ImmatureChild: **haha i know, but that's why we all love Law lol and yeah, Sarin's other side is pretty scary lol we'll get to see more of that pretty soon here haha

**motherloosegoose: **Thanks! I'm so glad you're liking it haha and there's still much more drama to come lol

**Elielephant: **haha that's hilarious - such a fun coincidence xD i'm glad my update made your day a little brighter lol and i decided to address the issue you brought up - that blind people still have dreams of colors and such if they've lost their sight sometime during their life. Hopefully my explanation is clear haha  
>xD i loved the idea of giving her car ears - the whole leopard spots thing is going to be a reoccurring gag haha much fun will come of this lol and Jackal is quite excited to have a fangirl lol but it's best not to hug him for too long haha he'll take advantage of the situation xD<br>Oh, and i thought i'd say that your oober long reviews are what i look forward to most after posting the new chapters lol

**Aera the Ninja: **haha thanks - I'm so glad you think i'm doing a good job with Sarin xD reading that really made my day haha

**~Enjoy~!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 14<strong>

I saw Law and Rice's outlines approaching from a little ways away, and finished up my small task of drying dishes, while Broth lounged in the galley, flipping through a newspaper. I watched from in front of the sink as they hoped onto the outer deck of the sub and made their way inside to the infirmary.

I set down the dish I was currently working on and quickly rushed up to the sick bay, despite my ultimate dislike of the place. Within moments I was knocking on the door, anxiously hoping that the hypnotism hadn't been a complete waste of time.

"Come in, Sarin," Law said almost boredly, probably guessing that I'd be awaiting his return so I could get some answers. I pushed open the sliding door and was greeted by the smell of disinfectant and blood, and the sound of muffled laughter.

Rice was laughing at me, and I realized why.

"Interesting fashion statement," Law commented with a smirk in his voice.

I sighed – at least he wasn't laughing outright. It would probably be a sign of the coming apocalypse if Law actually laughed at something without sounding snarky or chillingly condescending. My hand came to the fuzzy ears still sitting atop my head, "The guys said I needed a hat…"

Rice let out a strangled laugh, "I bet it was Pen's idea – damn I miss all the fun."

"Oh woe-is you," I mocked him. I turned back to Law, who still seemed to be amused by my feline ears as I could still feel his cold smirk aimed in my direction, and decided to ask, "So what happened today? I don't remember anything besides hearing Hawkins voice and then waking up to be ushered out of the room."

I waited, watching him with my shadowy sight with a hopefully pleading look.

"Well…it seems that your memories are still there in your head, but they're locked away where you can't reach them."

My brows creased as I listened to his words, "Why? How is that possible?"

Law let out a small breath as he and Rice started washing shadowy objects pulled from Rice's medical bag that smelled of fresh blood. The scent made my mind go a little fuzzy, but I waited intently for my Captain's explanation.

"My guess appears to have been right – you have subdued schizophrenia, where part of your subconscious has locked away your memories and detached itself from the main part of your brain. It seems to have done so in order to give you – the dominate consciousness – a different life. My theory is that it will only take over when you are in a state of danger or panic, and is unlikely to do so otherwise." Law put away the shadowy medical objects after Rice had washed them and thoroughly disinfected them with some sort of spicy smelling chemical.

My mind was swollen with thoughts and questions, but my voice wasn't cooperating. I couldn't help but blankly listen to my thoughts, never uttering the questions that wanted to be answered.

_Schizophrenia…why would my mind break off a part of itself? What happened to me to make my brain want to partition away its memories? Why was this locked away part of my mind so dangerous? How could that part of me pulverize people?_

None of it seemed to make sense to me. How could a part of my brain have the power to make people implode, while the rest of me didn't? I shook my head at the thoughts, but still didn't know what to say.

Law spoke again, filling the silence, "When you were in the hypnotized state, you were able to talk to this other part of your consciousness. It said that you didn't need the memories…that you were different from your past. It seems like that part of you wanted your primary consciousness to start over."

I was still quiet, listening to my buzzing thoughts.

My fingers touched my eyes, tracing the slightly raised lines that crossed over my eyelids. I had suspected for a while that the lines had been done purposely – the fineness to the scars suggested a scalpel or keen blade had been the culprit – but I had always hoped that it was for some decent reason…

From the sound of what Law was saying, that was just a silly hope and not the reality. The reality, still hidden from me and unknowable unless the other part of my consciousness gave up, sounded quite traumatic.

I wondered when I had lost my sight – how old I had been. It has bothered me that I had no memories of sights – or even dreams that held these mythical things called colors or light. Had my other consciousness even locked away these simple things? Why couldn't it let me remember colors? Or light? Or any sort of visual that was different from dark outlines and complete blackness?

More than anything I wanted memories like those – memories of what things looked like before I was blind. A cloud for example, or a mental picture of my bronze locket– hell, I'd even like to have a memory of a flower, despite my dislike of them. I wanted my memories…

But the possibilities of what they contained seemed less likely to be what I'd always hoped for, and more likely to be something I wouldn't want to remember.

Despite all this, I still needed answers.

I still wanted to know. I didn't want to go through life always wondering, "What if?" I was a big girl – I could handle the bad along with the good, even if the good was limited and the bad was extreme.

My fists fell down to my sides, and I faced Law once again, "Well, I'm not giving up just because the voice in my head said to do so…I _will_ get my memories back, no matter how long it takes."

Law shrugged at me, "It doesn't matter to me either way – all but a few of my questions have been answered – but if you DO get your memories back and for whatever reason become a bloodthirsty demon that can't tell crew from enemy, I won't hesitate to kill you in a long and painful process."

I sucked in a sharp breath –not necessarily at what he said, but at the enthused voice he said it in – and nodded, "I know…If I hurt any of the guys, I'd expect you to kill me." My hand clenched into a loose fist, and again I wondered how my other consciousness had killed those men without even touching them. If I ever hurt any of my crew – killed them like those Marines – I would probably off myself once I came to my senses. I'd never be able to live, knowing I killed one of my friends.

Law turned to Rice, who was drying off instruments and trying (but failing miserably, if I was correct) not to listen into all the details of my insanity and dual personality drama. Law looked at the overly large tweezer-shaped object in his assistant's hands, "I think that's clean now, Rice."

At Law's statement, Rice jumped in a startled manner, causing the odd medical instrument to slip from his hands. The short man managed to catch them before they clanged to the bottom of the sink. Rice sighed, "Heh – yeah, I guess so." He quickly turned to stash them into a drawer.

Law stuffed his hands into his front pockets and strolled towards the door, "I'm going to see about getting the sub coated."

I frowned at his statement, "I didn't think the sub needed a bubble coating…"

"Even a submarine, at 10,000 feet will be crushed by the pressure. I think our max depth is 1000 meters – maybe 1200 – a far cry from the 10,000 foot depth of Fishman island." Law stopped at the doorway and looked over his shoulder. I could feel him smirking at me and my leopard ears again, "I'm sure the guys are waiting for you at the bar – I officially welcome you to the Heart Pirate crew."

I shook my head and couldn't hold back a smile, "And here I thought I was already part of the crew."

"The hat makes it official," Rice informed me quite seriously.

I shook my head again and watched Law's shadowy outline leave the sick bay and head towards the outer deck to where Bepo was still napping in the sun.

I turned to Rice, who was now at my side. "If the hat makes it official, then why doesn't Jean Bart or Bepo wear a hat?"

Rice gave me a short laugh of disbelief and clicked his tongue at me, "Oh Sarin – still so much to learn. Can you seriously imagine JB wearing ANY type of hat? It would only take away from his threatening aura and probably make him look silly…and Bepo…well, he's already a bipedal bear wearing a neon orange jumpsuit – he doesn't need anything else to make him stand out."

"I guess there are some things a blind person just can't understand," I said sarcastically. I propped an arm on one of his shoulders, "Well, let's get to the celebration party."

Rice laughed and shouted, "To the bar!"

* * *

><p>It was roughly four in the afternoon when Rice and I reached the bar. Standing just outside, we could hear the shouts of our friends and the low murmur of music floating out from the open windows.<p>

I patted Prim's head as she hung from my shoulders like a living shawl – I had stopped to grab her before leaving the sub, figuring she'd appreciate the change of scenery. The snake flitted her tongue at me and then started slithering down my arm so that she could attach herself to Rice.

I laughed as the scrawny man stiffened while Prim wound herself around his shoulders. Since last night, it seems that my battlesnake had grown a fondness Rice, much to the man's unease.

"Don't worry," I gave him a few words of comfort as we pushed through the bar's door, "She won't bite – she likes you."

Rice didn't sound so convinced, as he gave a nervous laugh.

As we stepped inside, louder shouts drew my attention to a table smack in the middle of the room where a bunch of chairs had been crammed around the tiny table. I recognized six outlines of my crew – Penguin, Shachi, Miles, Kinney, Jackal, Vic and Teamer.

"Over here!" Penguin shouted as he flailed his arms above his head to grab my attention.

I did the mental equivalent of rolling my eyes and followed the shouted directions. Rice and I came to their table, where the group seemed to be in the midst of playing poker. There was one empty seat left, and Rice took it. Before I could turn to find another one at a different table, a hand wrapped around my waist and pulled me down.

I landed right on Jackal's lap as he shouted, "Sarin's on my team." His honey-toned voice let out a small laugh at all the rising complaints from the rest of the card players.

"I wanted Sarin on my team!" Penguin huffed.

"Too bad – I called her," Jackal said with a smirk in his voice.

I gave them all a sigh and then smiled evily, "I don't care whose team I'm on – as long as I get half the money."

I tried to pull myself off of Jackal's lap, but his hand was still holding my in place, giving me no room to wriggle off of his lap. I gave him a playful slap on the shoulder, "Come on, let me go get a chair."

I could feel the flirty smile radiating from his face, "No, can do – another chair won't fit around the table. You'll just have to sit with me."

I scowled at him, but noticed that the table was already packed with the eight chairs, leaving no room for another to be crammed into the midst. I resigned and resituated myself so that I sat on one of Jackal's knees. "Fine – but I know where to hit you now if you get too touchy," I warned, pointing a finger in his face.

Jackal's hand – the one that _wasn't_ still settled on my waist – rose into the air, "Retract those claws, kitty-cat," he started, giving my leopard ears a playful flick, "What kinda man do you think I am?"

I snorted, "I've learned a few good words to explain, if you want."

"HA!" Shachi cheered, "She's learning – already dissing Jackal like a pro."

Laughter erupted from the rest of the table – jackal included, who added flirtatiously, "Only a pro could resist me – but you'll come around eventually."

I shook my head at him, "Let's just get on with the card game – I'm ready to start making some money."

* * *

><p>We drank slightly watery tasting tap-beer, and as the night wore on our money pile kept getting bigger and bigger. I would scout out the other player's tells and ticks. For instance, Miles would constantly fidget with his hat when he had a good hand and was nervous about letting others figure it out, and he would start bouncing his leg – and unknowingly shake the table – when he had a bad hand. Teamer was also easy to read – he would drum his fingers against his cards in a more rapid beat when his cards were good, and switch up his usually constant sound when he was distracted and worried about a bad hand.<p>

Jackal and I made a good team…but the more pints he downed and the drunker he got, the higher his hand slid up my side. At first I didn't care too much – his hand was getting higher and therefore away from the two lower danger zones Shachi had warned me about – but after our third round of drinks, I realized he was coming closer and closer to my chest. I wasn't quite sure if this was intentional or just a habit on his part – I was pretty sure that normally if a girl was on his lap, that sort of touching was expected – but I wasn't intending to let his hand get any higher.

Our money pile had gotten pretty big so I called it quits before I had to do any kicking, as instructed by Shachi the other night.

"Tired of kicking our asses already?" Vic teased.

I shook my head and started counting out the money Jackal and I would split, "Pretty much – it's not much of a challenge if you just give it to me."

Penguin groaned, "Bah – I call you on my team next time. I'm tired of losing."

"Good game," Jackal smiled. He downed the rest of his drink, and I used that distraction to hop off of his lap and out of his grasp.

I pocketed my money and stretched out my arms, "I love the feeling of money in my pockets." I laughed and enjoyed the feathery feeling the alcohol was giving me. I felt light and giddy, though I did notice a slight buzz inside of my thoughts.

I was going to take it slow compared to yesterday with the shots – I wanted to enjoy the feeling of being drunk more this time around.

Our table of card players all got to their feet, all stowing what was left of their beri in their pockets and dispersing throughout the bar. Shachi and Penguin quickly came to my sides and put their arms over my shoulders, both of them slightly giggly – the beer was starting to kick in, "I say we teach Sarin how to dance!"

"But we're NOT letting Pen pick out the songs!" Jackal said quickly, "I refuse to listen to Tom Petty for the whole night!"

Penguin looked insulted, "Don't bash Petty! He's the best singer in the world!"

"If I have to listen to "Running Down a Dream" one more time, I swear I'm gonna punch somebody in the face," Vic groaned as he passed by, "Pick out some dance music, or something."

"Sorry Pen – no Petty tonight," Shachi agreed, "He's good, but that's all you listen too."

I shook my head at them all, "Well, I'll be fine with anything – we didn't have music on the island except what we made ourselves."

"You haven't LIVED!" Penguin shouted, followed by laughter, "That island is seriously messed up if they don't know who Tom Petty is."

"There's something seriously wrong with your brain, Pen," Jackal sighed.

But soon the flirty man's eye happened upon the outline of a very curvy woman's outline that was sitting in the corner by herself and soon disappeared from our group.

Teamer saw Jackal practically run to the woman's table and let out a laugh, "It seems Jackal has spotted his next target."

Julian grumbled from the bar, "I swear that guy has an eye for all the easy ones."

"Easy?" I asked, the beer dissolving my resolve not to ask questions about everything I didn't know, and increasing my curiosity to lethal levels.

Julian spun back around, trying to act as if he didn't hear me.

Shachi sighed, "It means a girl who doesn't mind having sex with a complete stranger…why the hell am I always the one who has to explain all the awkward stuff?"

"Sorry – I can't help it! I have to learn somehow," I muttered.

"Come on," Penguin said to change the subject, "I'm gonna teach you how to dance like a crazy person."

With that, Penguin and Shachi pulled me towards the center of the room and we started pushing tables to the walls. After creating the dance floor, Penguin got the bartender to blast some loud dance music that had a lot of drums and bass to it, and my dance lessons began.

The loud music pounded throughout the large room, making my heart almost vibrate every time a harsh drum beat echoed from the speakers. Pen and Shachi tried to teach me to dance – but their so-called dancing just looked like a bunch of jumping around to me. I tried to do it as well, but felt like an idiot and ended up falling on my butt.

I got back to my feet and shook my head at them, "I feel ridiculous…"

"That's your problem – you're thinking too much," Penguin said as he scratched the back of his neck, "Just let loose and relax. Let the music guide you."

I nodded at him and took a deep breath.

Dancing shouldn't be this hard, I thought to myself.

I watched as the shadowy outlines of Pen and Shachi started dancing randomly – the latter quickly joined by a skinny woman wearing shoes that made her taller by a few inches.

I took a deep breath and just paid attention to the music. I let the loud and pulsing beat take control of my body, and forced my mind to ignore how dumb I probably looked.

After a couple of minutes, my body let itself relax and started moving with the music. Pen clapped at me, "See! You got it! Just go with it, and you'll be fine!" I saw his large-hatted outline soon disappear into the crowd that had gathered, leaving me on my own.

I ignored the world around me as I danced to the changing music. I smiled at the variety of songs as they paraded through the speaker systems. Some were heavier and booming, while others were extremely fast with up-beat tempos. A few even sounded mechanical, as if a machine were attempting to sing.

I had missed so much of the world while stuck on Amazon Lily – and now that I was free, I couldn't see the logic in wanting to seclude themselves from everything. They claimed that Men and The Man's World were places of evil and corruption…but as I listened to the entrancing music play, I had a hard time believing the world of men to be so bad.

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><p>Dim starlight shone through the trees, illuminating a crouched figure across the street from the rowdy pub. As the music seeped through the open windows and out into the early night air, a young marine watched the shoddy building a head of him while trying to stay relatively hidden and out of sight.<p>

He watched the windows like a hawk, and finally he saw what he'd been sent to find. As a body passed by the glassless window, the young marine saw the specific jolly roger of the rookie Heart Pirates plastered on the back of the body's jumpsuit. The young man pulled his wrist up to his mouth and spoke to a baby den-den mushi that was strapped there.

"I have a visual Commander – I can confirm that the Heart Pirates are on the west bank of the archipelago and have populated a small town in Grove 15," he whispered urgently.

The baby den-den spoke with the voice of a grizzled Marine Commander, "Good work. Regroup with your unit Captain and await further orders. If we move in to fast, they'll have a better chance at escape."

"Aye, Commander." The young and relatively generic marine confirmed. The small den-den disconnected and closed its eyes, allowing the marine to close its small protective case.

The marine sent a glare at the rowdy pub before disappearing into the darkness.

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><p><strong>AN:** hey - i know that most of the chapter consisted of Sarin's thoughts, but i hope it wasn't too boring lol Finally we're getting to some action in the next part so there's something to look forward too haha


	16. Chapter 15

Here it is! The (sort-of) long awaited Chapter 15 haha i really wanted to get this out on Monday but my stupid astronomy teacher threw a last-minute exam onto us (or at least it felt like it anyways) and i was up until the butt-crack of dawn studying - most of Monday and Tuesday was spent recovering my lost hours of sleep lol anyways, enough excuses, time for some shout-outs and then onto the story!

**Shout-Outs!**

**motherloosegoose: **Haha thanks! Jackal's so far the most fun to play with xD and yes, her "other" side will be coming out to play pretty soon here lol

**Elielephant: **Haha i actually made up the "subdued" schizophrenia - i figured it sounded realistic enough to make sense, while also explaining Sarin's mental condition lol I figured that it was kind of a long-shot to say that normal schizophrenia explained why her mind took away all of her past memories, so i made up something lol I love creative license xD And i'm sorry to say there isn't much Jackal in this chapter - some in the beginning, but other than that its mostly action, which i found to be oober difficult to write without seeing-words lol

**Son of Whitebeard: **Haha Sarin's too much of a handful for the Marines xD

**Monind: **Thanks for the review! I'm so glad you like it so far xD lol and i'm still not sure about the pairings - at this point in time i'm leaning towards one option, but i keep changing my mind (which is bad lol) Sorry about the spelling - that's my worst area. Even with editing and the miracle that is spell-check, I cannot spell to save my life lol I think it's an incurable disease

**Alpenwolf: **wow - i thought it was a glitch when my email said i had eight new reviews lol Thanks for reading :) You're right, Sarin and Marines are not a good mix haha

**Con-Artist643:** Haha hope this is exciting as you expected xD Thanks for the review!

**Alright, here you are! Enjoy~!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 15<strong>

Today was the last day we'd be spending on the island. While the submarine was going through the coating process, we all stayed in town. It had been two days, and tomorrow we'd be able to leave and head down towards Fishman Island – the next stop on our journey.

And during that time in town, I'd learned to ignore Jackal once he found a new target to work his so-called "Five Steps to Pleasure" plan which he said was his technique to getting all the girls. But around noon, I decided I'd stretch my shadowy sight.

"What in the heck is he doing to her face?" I asked in curious shock. I had only planned on giving my haki-vision a little exercise…but I ended up seeing Jackal and his newest lady-friend as they sat in the corner.

Technically sitting wasn't the right word – they were practically wrapped around each other. But the strangest part was their faces. Their outlines looked as though they were trying to bite each other's mouths off in some sort of competition – the winner of which would be the first one to succeed.

Shachi turned to me, and then spun around to look at our flirty friend. "Who, Jackal?" he asked, as though not quite understanding the problem.

I nodded, "Yeah, him." The shadowy couple was still attempting to eat each other, their faces pushed so forcefully together that they almost seemed to morph into one shadow.

"They're just making out," he said nonchalantly.

"Making out?" I repeated. My mind couldn't figure out any relation between the words and what Jackal and his curvy friend were doing.

Shachi said sighed at me. He had become my mentor to the real world, though he never seemed pleased about said fact. "Kissing," he clarified, "Sheesh, please tell me you at least know what that is."

I scoffed, "That's not like any kiss I've ever seen. Poppy would sometimes kiss me goodnight, but that was a small thing on the forehead…they look like they're trying to eat each other."

"Making out is a more serious type of kissing – hence, the mild cannibalism," Shachi explained. He shook his head at me and downed the rest of his glass of tap-beer.

Penguin's largely hatted head popped up behind me and poked at my cat ears, which the crew had not let me take off. I assumed he had overheard the conversation as he added, "Are you, like, immune to lust or something?"

I thought for a minute, but then answered truthfully, "I don't really understand it…it's like a feeling, right?"

The duo groaned and Shachi muttered, "You're hopeless. Yes, lust is a feeling."

"Well, what does it feel like?" I asked curiously.

"NO! That's right up there with explaining sex, and I won't do it!" Shachi said as he threw his hands atop his head, squashing his already lopsided hat.

I looked pleadingly (I hoped) at Pen, who sighed and fidgeted in response, "Uh, well…it's like…I guess the best way to say it is feeling the need to touch someone, or have them touch you." I could practically feel the heat radiating from his cheeks.

"Hmm…well, sometimes I feel the need to scratch Bepo behind the ears when he's napping on deck – but I don't think that's the same." I sighed – maybe lust was something only people with their vision could feel.

Penguin laughed, "That's definitely not it…"

I groaned – I hated not knowing what was common knowledge for everyone else. It made me feel so frustrated and naïve despite my normal maturity concerning other aspects of life. I usually felt so mature – especially for my age of only seventeen – but not knowing these things which supposedly played a big part in the lives of people unsheltered by the secluded island and ladies of Amazon Lily made me feel like a child having to learn how to play well with others.

To let out my frustrations I shot out my haki-vision to that it saw out a mile in each direction – this time ignoring the merging outlines of Jackal and his lady-friend. But I sucked in a sharp breath as I saw a large grouping of outlines just within the mile radius of my vision. There were at least thirty outlines all grouped together.

Usually, a group of people didn't mean much – it could be anything from a group of kids playing a game to a party of friends enjoying the warm and soapy afternoon breeze – but I recognized the unifying aspects of all their shadowy forms almost immediately.

The identical hats all pulled down over their eyes to shield the whatever sun managed to seep through the treetops and the edges of their clothing which all seemed to fall along the same contours of their bodies.

Marines.

My mouth tightened and I quickly scanned for Law within the bar. "I need to find Captain!" I said in an urgent whisper to my two comrades.

Shachi's head cocked to the side, "Why? I don't think he could give you a better explanation."

I shook my head, "Not about that!" My sight finally found Law in a back room of the bar accompanied by Bepo. He was currently reading a book of some sort while holding a fat and short glass. I grabbed both Shachi and Penguin's arms and tore off in Law's direction, "I think the Marines know where we are!"

* * *

><p>The gathering of Marines – squad 13, a sniper unit, along with fighter squads 8 and 9 – all stared at the odd newcomer who had just barged into their strategy meeting. Weapons were raised and shouts from the squad Captains and the commanding officer, Commander Kayne, rose into the air.<p>

The stranger just smirked at the gathering, "Good afternoon boys."

Commander Kayne stepped out from the midst of the Marine gathering, his mantle which brandished the word "Justice" on the back billowing out behind him as he did so. Kayne was a large man, as was necessary for most Commanding officers in the Marines, with a sword hanging from both hips. His shining eyes narrowed at the stranger and he spoke out with his grizzled and attention-grabbing voice, "I'll ask you to turn around, Sir – this is no place for civilians."

And indeed, the stranger looked like a normal civilian – he was tall and gaunt looking with an easy yet somehow chilling smile. He wore a plain green button-up shirt that made his eyes look dark brown, and somewhat dressy pants. Despite his odd smile that settled on his lips, he seemed like a relatively normal civilian.

But he was far from it, in ways the marines could not understand.

"I'm not a civilian," the stranger informed, his voice chirpy and cheerful as well as cold and chilling, "I'm investigating a…missing person's report." He smiled at the last phrase.

Commander Kayne did not yet give the signal for his men to lower their weapons. His eyes narrowed further at the stranger and his voice got tougher. "If you don't leave now, Sir," he spat, "I will deem you a threat and give my men the OK to shoot you."

The stranger only laughed at the Commander's tough and slightly frightening voice, "Oh that would be quite the mistake Kayne." The stranger quickly brought his hand to the breast pocket of his green shirt and pulled out a small envelope, completely ignoring the clangs and clicks of weapons as the marines behind Commander Kayne readied their guns to shoot.

The stranger waved the envelope in the air, signaling for the Commander to take it.

With eyes still locked on the newcomer, Commander Kayne took a further step forward and snatched the envelope out of the stranger's hand.

The envelope was sealed shut with pressed wax, bearing the connected orbs that signified the World Government. As the Commander ripped open the envelope and started reading the letter within, his eyes widened with shock.

His hands lowered a bit as he finished with the signature at the bottom of the page, "This…this is signed by Admiral Akainu."

The stranger nodded and smiled at the Marine commander, "And believe me, that's no forgery." The stranger looked to the marines flanking their momentarily speechless Commander, "I'd lower those weapons if I were you – though, they wouldn't do much damage anyway." The stranger's smirk grew.

Commander Kayne shook away she shock that had put his vocal chords on mute, "The letter is nondescript as to why you're here, uh…Sir."

The stranger smiled, "As I said – I'm conducting a missing person's investigation, and it has led me to these rookie pirates by the name of Heart."

The Commander did NOT like the fact that this stranger had such a high connection – especially with the legendary Red Dog, Admiral Akainu – but did not want to bring down punishment on his men or himself by being uncooperative with the man. He gritted his teeth and asked, "What is it that you need from us? We were just about to ambush these pirates. Surely whatever you're investigating could wait until after we've caught them."

But the stranger only laughed, "Oh it probably could – but if my sources are correct and the person I'm looking for is indeed on this crew of rookies, catching them might prove fatal for you and your men."

Commander Kayne drew down his heavy brow, "I can assure you, _sir_, that these pirates will NOT be a problem for us. Justice will always prevail against such scum as them."

Again, spine-chilling laughter erupted from the stranger's mouth and drifted into the soapy air of the warm afternoon, "Suit yourself. Carry on, Commander – I hope you've lived a long and satisfying life." The stranger suddenly turned on his heels and walked away. His laughter could still be heard even when he had disappeared from sight.

Commander turned back to his men – he had no idea who that stranger was, or why he had such high connections, but he did know that his words were ridiculous. No measly rookie pirate crew would beat him – no matter how large their bounty was, pirates were all the same. They were weak under the heavy arms of the Marine's justice.

* * *

><p>"Marines?" Law asked as he set down his book and turned to face me in his seat, "Are you sure?"<p>

I nodded urgently, "Noticed their uniforms – their hats gave them away."

Law got to his feet and shoved his hands into his pants pockets, "This is not good – our ship's coating won't be dried properly until tomorrow morning." Law was silent as he went over his thoughts, but soon broke out into that cold smirk that made the air go cold all around us, "I guess a little entertainment wouldn't be too bad before setting off."

Captain spun to face Bepo – who'd so far stayed quiet and observing in the corner during our brief discussion – and ordered, "Gather the men and tell them to grab their things. The Marines don't know that we're onto them so we should switch up our location and wait for them to get closer."

Bepo nodded, "Aye captain!" he took off at a quick pace to start rounding up the rest of the guys.

Law then turned to the remaining three of us, "Sarin, keep track of their movements and stick close to me until the fighting starts. Pen, Shachi – tell Teamer to move the sub up the coast a little ways. It should be safe to move it as long as it doesn't dive."

"Aye Captain," The three of us responded. Shachi and Penguin followed after Bepo's large outline to start fulfilling their orders, while I lingered by the door, waiting for Law to give me something more specific to do.

He seemed lost in thought for a moment, so I kept quiet, allowing him silence to think. He looked upward at the ceiling as if he had suddenly developed my shadowy ability to see beyond the four walls that enclosed us. Finally he spoke, "Is there a way up to the roof of this building?"

I quickly shot out my sight, inspecting the shabby architecture of the pub with a close eye. I found no ladder or way onto the roof, but on the building to the left of us was roughly the same height. I searched the neighboring building and found that there was a way up into the attic, and from there, a way to get onto the roof.

"Not for this building, but the store to the left of us does – if you get into the attic, you can get onto the roof through a hatch door."

Law nodded at me, "That's where we'll be. Go get situated up there – I have to talk to Camin about rigging up some of his bombs to the bar." He sounded oddly happy at the prospect of an explosion, and quickly took off to talk to Camin.

I shook my head at him once he had left and went to my specified place to wait for him.

* * *

><p>The crew was in position, and our battle plan was set up and ready to go. Now all that was left was for the Marines to make their move.<p>

I saw the hatted outlines of my friends as they lay in wait for our signal. They were all hiding either inside the pub, crouching behind tables, the bar, or beneath windows where they could easily jump out and attack the advancing Marines, or were scattered about the surrounding buildings. The only outline missing from our ranks was Teamer, who had left to take the submarine to a safer place to wait out the battle – even Broth was going to fight this time.

Law and I were hidden on the roof of the store to the left of the shabby pub, crouching behind the easy incline of the roof, and staying desperately still so that we wouldn't lose our balance and fall to the ground about twenty feet or more below us. When the enemy came and it was my cue to start the attack, I would be able to straddle the raised line of tiles that ran long-ways down the roof, the spine where the inclines from both sides met – but until the Marines were within my shooting range, I had to stay still and watched their advancing outlines.

Using my stretched vision, I kept a lookout on our enemies. It was a few hours until sunset, and the marines were finally making their move. I watched their outlines creeping steadily towards us, using other shabby buildings and homes in the vicinity to shield themselves from sight, and thus keeping their movements covert…well, they thought so anyways.

It was almost sad. Here they probably thought they had a foolproof plan for catching us, most-likely thinking that a smaller group of skilled marines would work better than just throwing an endless amount of soldiers at us. They thought to ambush us while we were intoxicated and unprepared, but in reality, I could see their whole plan unfolding before my scarred eyes, and we were the ones about to do the ambushing.

"They're closing in, Captain. Only a few rows of buildings away," I whispered to Law as he knelt beside me.

His hands gripped the hilt of his large nodachi in eager readiness. I heard an excited smirk in his voice as he spoke, "Let's give them a nice and friendly greeting – wait for half their numbers to go inside and then give the signal.

I nodded and smiled excitedly, "Yes, Captain." I gave Prim a gentle pinch on the underside of her head – who had been content to wrap herself around my waist as soon as she saw me don my quiver of arrows – and she quickly unraveled herself from my body and stiffened herself into her bow-form. She hissed a confirmation at me as I looped the strong twine over her head and tail.

I pulled an arrow from my quiver and loosely notched it, readying myself for the signal, which was just a plain arrow through the open window of the bar.

I watched the advancing outlines of the enemy from my shielded position, keeping my shadowy sight stretched out to their farthest man. There were a wide variety of shapes and sizes among the marine ranks – I counted thirty-one approaching outlines, the odd one out wore the billowing cape that signified a higher ranking officer. I noted him as the leader and watched as he stayed with the farthest group of ten – all of which wielded large guns tightly in their shadowy arms.

I smiled – this was their sniper unit.

I relayed the new piece of information to Law, who replied with a smirky voice, "I'll leave them to you."

I gave a small laugh, "You're too kind."

The twenty front men, who were equipped with the Marine standard pistol and curved sword, had finally reached the other side of the hard-packed dirt street.

"You should be able to see them now," I breathed.

Law only nodded, calming his breath so that not even I, with my overly developed sense of sound, could hear his presence.

The marines obviously noted the absolute silence of the street. They hesitated, as if confused as to why we weren't already causing our nightly scene within the shabby pub. They seemed to come to some sort of conclusion and the twenty men split into two groups of ten, the first heading towards the front door, and the second going around the back.

My lips tightened and I turned my worried face to Law. Thankfully we'd accounted for something like this and the men inside knew to keep a lookout on both entrances, but it completely blew our original plan and would reveal my and Law's cover up here on the roof – while we were completely hidden from the street-side of the building, if you came around the back, all you had to do was look up and you'd be able to see us.

Law gave me an easy shrug and held up two fingers, signifying our backup plan.

Our plan B was much less detailed compared to our first plan of action – which had been to trap as many marines inside the bar as possible and then collapse the ceiling in with a few of Camin's strategically placed gunpowder bombs once all of our crew was outside. From there we'd pick off any survivors who were well enough to continue attacking us and then meet up with Teamer and the submarines farther up the coast.

But now that they were heading towards the backdoor – which was the route our guys were planning to take once enough marines had filed into the pub – we could have to go with the second plan and see how things went from there.

Plan B was quite simple – attack like crazy until there's no one left to fight.

The first team of marines had reached the front door and were about to kick it in.

I let out a calming breath and in one fluid motion I pulled myself up and straddled the spine of the roof. Before anyone had time to note my sudden movement, I released my Busoshoku laced arrow, sending it flying towards the front man of the group, and readied another arrow to aim at the group that was nearing the back door.

My first arrow struck the front-man of the group at the front door in the fleshy part of his thigh. The heavy impact of the Armament Haki caused his thigh bone to shatter with a sickening shower of cracks. The Marine collapsed to the ground screaming in horrible agony as he clutched his shattered thigh.

The marines surrounding my first victim all dropped to the ground and scattered in a panic, fearing another explosive arrow, but my sights were on the second group that had reached the back of the pub. They were nervous now that they heard the terrible screams of their comrade, but had decided to carry on with their plan.

One marine of the second group kicked in the back door, but before they could all rush in, I leased my second arrow.

It struck the man in the back, right between the shoulder blades, and caused a shadowy hole to magically appear where my arrow hit it. I heard the second man's screams join the first man's, becoming an agonizing harmony.

Another man from the second group – which had practically frozen in befuddlement – suddenly looked up in my direction. He stared at me for a moment before shouting, "Up on the -!" but he got no further.

Just at that moment, the guys in the bar leapt out of the pub and started attacking the group of nine at the back door. Their senseless battle cries rang out into the late afternoon air, acting as a signal for all hell to break loose.

The few of our crew that had hidden in the surrounding buildings took this time to fling themselves from their hiding spots as well. Chaos broke out on the ground, but I set my sights on the snipers that were setting up their large guns to shoot from the ground across the street and the second story of a tall three story building.

I notched another arrow and aimed high. The large trees that made up the island were blocking most of the wind, giving me excellent conditions for my archery. I smiled as I pushed my sight forward and focused solely on the snipers in the upper floors.

They were still setting up their guns. I wasn't sure on the type, but I knew that I had to take them out before they had to chance to start shooting at my friends on the ground.

"I think I'll join the fight," Law said with a sickening smile in his voice, "Make sure they don't have the chance to start shooting at us." Without bothering to await my response, Law threw himself off the side of the roof and landed with a strange grace on the back of a downed Marine.

I let out a deep and focused breath as I leased an arrow.

It soared through the air, arching upwards and then coming down in an easy slope right through the window they thought to shoot from.

Glass tinkled as it shattered and shouts and yelps of pain mingled with the sound of the explosion set off by my Busoshoku.

While the upper floor was scrambling in a panic I took aim at the three snipers that were set up on the ground. They were hiding behind wooden pallets than they had probably found lying around in the alley where they were stationed. The barrels of their guns were set atop the pallets to steady their aim.

I smiled and sent an arrow into their stabilizing pallets.

As my arrow hit, the wood exploded into shadowy splinters and dust, knocking back the outlines of the sniper marines and hopefully damaging their weapons.

I fired away at the snipers within the building until I was sure that they were either dead or too injured to keep firing. I scanned the room with my shadowy sight and saw all seven marines lying unmoving on the floor – most of which had large chunks missing from their legs, torsos or shoulders thanks to my Armament Arrows.

I reached for another arrow, but my fingers came up empty.

I used one of Jackal's favorite curse words as I realized I'd used up my entire supply of arrows.

I would have to go down into the fray of battle and search for any that hadn't been broken.

I gave Prim another pinch on the underside of her head and signaled for her to relax.

She flickered her tongue at my finger and loosened up her body. Soon she was slithering up my arm and down to my waist.

I unslung my empty quiver and stowed it in my satchel, while carefully pulling myself off of the spine of the roof. Gently I slid down to the hatch that would let me into the attic of the shop I was currently standing on.

I wedged my fingers along the edges of the rough wooden hatch and pulled it up enough for me to squeeze through. I dropped down into the dusty air of the store's attic, landing harshly on my bare feet. Tingles shot up my legs from the impact, but I quickly shook them off and made my way through the boxes and junk that took up most of the attic's space. I found the ladder down into the first story of the shop and passed by the terrified shop owner who was cowering beneath his cashier's desk.

I gave him a small smile as I came to the door, "Sorry about all this – we'll be finished quickly."

He didn't answer me so I stepped back out into the warm afternoon that would be turning into evening in just a few hours. I smelled dust from the road mixed with the metallic scent of blood and heard the cries, shouts, and all around noisy sounds of battle filling the air. I kept low and out of the midst of the fighting as I scanned specifically for any arrows that survived my reign of terror over the Marine snipers. I reached quickly into my satchel and pulled out my small dagger, which I kept for such emergencies as this.

Focusing my sight to look for something as fine and small as an arrow was quite difficult, especially when my shadowy sight wanted to look for my friends and see how they were doing. From what I saw and knew before hand, my crew mostly had swords, daggers or blades of some sort. Only a few had pistols, and fewer fought with nothing but their fists and feet. Broth and Jackal were the only two that I knew to have guns, but I thought Camin might also have one as well, while Bepo Shachi and Penguin all fought using martial arts of some kind.

I was very tempted to watch them and get a close up look at this fighting of theirs, but forced myself to stay focused on the task at hand.

Finally I spotted an arrow between the shabby bar and the store I had been previously stationed on, and rushed forward. It was lying beside my second victim, who was now no longer moving. The metallic sent of blood that surrounded him was almost dizzying so I quickly snatched up my recovered arrow and headed towards the front of the bar, hoping to find the arrow from my first victim in just as good condition.

Unfortunately though, it was not. Upon impact with the marine's thigh bone, the shaft of the arrow had shattered just as bad as the man's leg – but at least the arrow's head was still intact. I picked up the spare piece and felt a few chips missing from the tip, but found that it was still in relatively good condition.

I stowed it in my satchel and hurried across the street, weaving through the individual fights and ruckus towards the building with all of my downed snipers.

A shadowy hand I wasn't anticipating shot out of nowhere and quickly brought a cutlass to my stomach. I managed to see it just in time to duck to the side, but still got sliced.

I heard the ripping and pulling of fabric and felt a warm sting sink down to the bone in my left shoulder. I let out a mixed cry of pain and frustration and quickly brought my small dagger to the outline's throat as he pulled his thin blade away to strike again.

My dagger missed its intended target and only sliced the shadowy marine across the chest. I felt the resistance of his skin against my small blade, which probably wasn't keen enough to slice an apple, let alone skin, and knew by the hard time I had of completing my arched arm movement that my dagger was practically ripping his skin open instead of cutting it nicely.

The man let out an angry and painful yell and grabbed my wrist with the dagger in it with his free hand.

He yanked my hand away, forcing me to let go of the dagger. He threw me by around the arm, coming close to dislocating my shoulder and sending me sprawling to the ground.

The shadowy marine pulled my dagger from his chest, which now smelt heavily of blood, and threw it to the ground a few yards away from me. He pulled his cutlass back, preparing to stab the through the heart with one swift jab.

But luckily for me, a familiar shadow came to my rescue.

Seko's outline came up behind the marine and stabbed an elongated blade through the man's stomach.

The marine groaned and fell to the dusty and bloody ground. I quickly scrambled to my feet and hurried to find my dagger.

"Are you alright?" Seko asked breathlessly. I barely managed to hear him over the loud static of battle that layered the entire street.

I nodded, "Thanks – he almost got me." I straightened up and regripped my dull dagger in my right hand.

He gingerly touched my shoulder, his callused fingers pushing away the slashed fabric and lightly grazing the bloodied skin beneath. I could feel blood running down my arm and seeping into the fluffy inside of my jacket.

"This looks bad," he muttered, "I can see the bone." He pulled his hand away and faced my, "What are you doing down here?"

I sighed, "I ran out of arrows so I came down to look for any that might have survived. I was trying to get to that building when that guy came out of nowhere."

"Why couldn't you see him? I thought your vision let you see everything around you all at once? It should be impossible to sneak up on you."

I shook my head, "I was concentrating too hard on finding the arrows in the rubble up ahead. When I focus too hard, everything in my immediate area gets kinda pushed to the back burner of my mind."

He shook his head at me, "Alright – show me where to go and I'll come with you." He tapped at the dagger in my hands, "That old thing isn't going to do much."

I nodded at him and pointed to the building across the street. Even with my dark, un-detailed vision I could see smoke rising up from the walls from all the Busoshoku arrows I had bombarded it with. I grabbed onto the back of Seko's jumpsuit as he pushed our way through the crowd of the fight.

He wove us around avoidable fights, passing by Bepo's strange outline as he sent a flying kick into a marine's chest, knocking him to the ground and causing him to trip a second marine who was in the middle of a fight with one of our crew. I could tell by the slightly square-ish hat and the small visor coming off the side that it was Vic. Once he saw that his marine was down, he quickly finished him off so that he could find another to fight with.

Our crew was kicking ass. The Marines had underestimated us, by only sending three units. This fight would probably be over before sunset.

Finally, after Seko slashed the back of a man's knees with his long blade, we reached the three storied building that currently housed almost the entire unconscious or dead sniper unit.

I let go of Seko's suit, "I can handle it from here – everyone in the building isn't going to be moving for a while, if ever."

But Seko wouldn't hear it, "No – I'm going to stick with you. If you're vision isn't going to work, you're defenseless. I'll watch out for enemies while you look for your arrows."

I sighed but nodded. He did have a valid point.

"Alright, but if you see any arrows that look somewhat salvageable, tell me."

He nodded and we started into the building, him looking out for any movement, and me looking closely for shadowy arrows – or their pieces at least.

The building was musty and the air was stale. As we walked up the spiraling staircase that lead up to the higher floors, I felt tiny strings of spiders' webs tickling my face. I brushed them away, being careful not to lift my left arm too much, lest I restart the flow of bleeding from my wound.

Eventually we came to the third story entrance. I smelled lots of blood and smoke mingled in with the stale air of the building. A slight breeze was coming in through the windows that I'd broken as I sent arrow after arrow into the building.

Seko gave a soft whistle, "You did all this?"

I smirked and nodded, "My arrows pack quite a punch, don't they?"

"This is quite the massacre – Law would be proud."

I mentally rolled my eyes at him and started scouring the ground for arrows, focusing my vision solely on the ground, straining my limited sight to see the thin figures of any arrows that might be in the vicinity.

After ten minutes of searching, I found only seven intact arrows and six un-shattered arrow heads out of my original twenty-four.

I was about to relax my mental eyes for a moment by shutting off my sight when I heard something.

My head snapped up and I quickly turned towards the sound. Seko reacted at the same moment, having also heard the sound of movement in the stairwell behind us. He grabbed me by the uninjured shoulder and pushed me behind him. He raised his elongated blade and readied himself for an attack.

I tried to push my sight to see through the walls of the stairwell, but they were too tired to do so. I had exhausted most of my energy into looking for my arrows.

Suddenly a shadow appeared in the doorway and a chill ran down my spine at the outline's mere presence. I didn't see the standard Marine garb on the man, and I guessed Seko didn't either as he called out, "Who are you?"

The man gave a chillingly light laugh that made goose-bumps ripple down my arms. "She should know that already."

My body froze, as if suddenly immersed in ice water.

His voice was terribly cold…

I started to speak – though I wasn't entirely sure what words I would have used – when my vision failed completely and my mind felt as if it were being ripped out of my head.

I was being pulled into unconsciousness and the only explanation was a strange and terribly feral voice that spoke through my mouth that spat, "The Dead Man."

* * *

><p><strong>Dun dun dun duuuuuuuun <strong>

**lol sorry about the cliffhanger - but this chatper was super long! 5884 words compared to the usual 3500-4000 that i write~! Hope the actiony stuff was okay - i'm not super skilled at battle scenes and writing them when you can't use sight-words is quite difficult, so i've found lol Anywho, hope you liked it xD I've got a good next chapter planned out!**


	17. Chapter 16

**Hey there! Alrighty, well, this one is a little short, but i felt the need to stop it early because if i didn't, the next scene would have dragged out for a long while lol **

**Shout Outs!**

**Elielephant: **no one really noticed that i made up "subdued schizophrenia" so far, so all is good haha and sorry, probably no funny quotes in this one, and not much Jackal either, BUT i promise that the next chapter will filled with fun Jackal-ness lol small cliff hanger here, but nothing huge - the chapter probably leaves you asking more questions though haha

**Monind**: hopefully the spelling in this one is better - it should be, because i spent a little more time than normal checking haha this chapter answers most of your previous questions, but probably raises more haha hope you like xD

**Son of Whitebeard**: Yeah, the Marine Commander is pretty typical haha he gets some fun facetime in a small part of this chapter xD and our strange stranger definitely has some interesting tricks up his sleeves

**Alpenwolf**: haha yeah, Sarin's going to regret not bringing more arrows from Amazon Lily lol and i agree with you about common knowledge, but it would be horribly frustrating not knowing the simple things that everyone else around you already knew

**motherloosegoose**: Thanks! I'm glad it was good lol and i love those scenes hehe making Shachi have to explain all the awkward stuff xD

**Alright, that's it, here's the next chapter**

**~enjoy~**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 16<strong>

"The Dead Man," Sarin spat in a vicious snarl. She sounded almost animalistic, and Seko could practically feel the deadly waves of animosity emanating from her body. The arm he had been using to keep her shielded was now being gripped by her small hand. He felt her nails digging into his flesh, even through the thick sleeve of his white jumpsuit.

He sent a sideways glance at the girl, and knew immediately that this was what Penguin had been talking about before.

Her scarred eyes which she usually kept closed, were wide open, the pupils of which were narrowed to almost a cat-like thinness. Suddenly, the quirky and hilariously oblivious girl that wore cat ears and messed with the crew on a regular basis was gone – replaced by this ferocious, narrow-eyed voice that seemed foreign on her lips.

This was her dormant personality that Rice had talked about.

Rice, being the complete chatterbox that he was, had relayed all of the information of Sarin's mental state to the rest of the crew. He had heard of her and Law's conversation about her dual personalities and her subdued consciousness – but didn't think he'd see it anytime soon.

He couldn't help but think back to their first run in with her terrifying inner-self. He pictured Sarin lying face-down in a massive pool of blood, completely covered in the crimson paint. He shuttered and turned back to the strange man that had snuck up on them. "Do you know him, Sarin?" he asked slowly and quietly, not wanting to startle this scary personality inside of his friend's body.

"The Dead Man's here…I wasn't expecting it yet," she growled. Seko half expected her to grow fangs and start sprouting fur – she sounded like a wild animal rearing to attack something.

The stranger gave a loud laugh, sending a bucket of chills down Seko's spine. "I forgot that's what you used to call me – oh the fond memories. If you hadn't dropped off the face of the earth for eight years or so we could have done this sooner." The eerie smile never faded from the strange man's lips.

Seko sized the man up. He was tall and well muscled, without being bulky. Tawny brown hair was neatly swept back on his head and held in place with shiny gel, leaving his plain and simple facial features to take the spotlight. He looked relatively normal and weak…until Seko spotted his eyes.

They were an aged and faded blue – not cold like Law's but rather knowing and visibly old. They looked as if they've seen much more than the twenty or so years of life that his body testified.

Those eyes were strange – and they seemed to know something of Sarin's past.

"The Dead Man is here…it knows…maybe I should kill it," the voice that wasn't Sarin's spoke.

The so-called Dead Man gave another loud laugh and said, "That's highly possible, but I doubt you know how. You would have killed me before now if you knew."

"It needs to disappear. Disappear like the other voices and screams did. Disappear and never come back." Sarin's hand rose slowly.

Seko knew what she was going to do…but he could think of nothing to stop her. The other girl inside of Sarin didn't seem to notice Seko's presence. He could only hope that he wouldn't get pulverized because of his close proximity to her.

As she made to clench her fist, Seko closed his eyes, waiting for whatever was going to happen next.

* * *

><p>Trafalgar Law smiled widely, revealing his straight and pearly teeth that were rarely seen behind his usual smirk. For the battle he had let his insanity take the reins of his mind, leaving his rationality to take the back seat for a while.<p>

"Room," he muttered gleefully, his icy blue eyes glittering with joy as he imagined all the ways to cut up the two marines inside of his slightly blue-tinted dome.

Here, in this small space, he was God. He was all-powerful. He was creator, and destroyer, law and chaos. Any mass within his domain was fair game to be played with how he saw fit…and he was in a very playful mood.

With the quick slice of his nodachi through mid-air, and a quick hand motion with his free hand, body parts were liberated from their original shape and sent floating around his dome as if they were weightless. The diced body parts started squirming on their own, and a mouth that was no longer connected to anything but a small sliver of neck started screaming.

Law's smile grew wider as he realized this had been the Commander's mouth – the one that kept babbling on and on about Justice and the Pride of the Marines. "Let me tell you, Commander Kayne – your Justice may be absolute, but it holds nothing to Law."

The God of this domain let out a cold and ice-like laugh that sent shivers down the disconnected spine of Commander Kayne and the other chopped up soldier that had been within Law's radius. Law made a spinning motion with his free hand, sending the countless chunks of Marine flying around in circles. More screams echoed from the parts that housed the mouths of his victims, and while those screams sounded like music to Law's ears, his rational mind was telling him to finish up already – the rest of the crew was probably already finished with their opponents by now.

Law's insanity cursed the backseat driver of his mind, but listened to it. He popped all the liberated body parts together into one ghastly being that shouldn't still be alive, but was. Each oddly segmented section of this new creation squirmed and squiggled on its own, as if trying to break away from the monstrosity it had become. Law smiled, but had lost interest now that his scrambling had finished.

He left the horrible mixture of commander and generic soldier to its misery – it would be stuck like that unless he himself decided to right their bodies, but he didn't feel so generous. No amount of surgery would be able to revert them to what they once were, unless of course you didn't mind killing them in the process.

Law let out a muted laugh at the thought and released his small dome with a nonchalant wave of his hand. He swung his nodachi to rest against his shoulder as he scanned the mass of the battle for any more possible victims – maybe he'd let his favorite scalpel do some of the damage this time instead of relying on his devil-fruit ability.

The crowd of battle seemed to be waning down. More of his crew was standing than Marines, and he spotted only a few injuries worst than scrapes and minor cuts. Eli seemed to have taken a bad slice at the bend of his left arm, right where all the veins came together and appeared to be stopping the bleeding with a fallen Marine's cap. Broth also seemed quite beaten down, but more out of exhaustion than wounds. He was panting heavily as he whacked at a Marine with his battle-pan, which he always claimed was more effective than any sword or gun.

Law was about to relive Broth from his fighting to order him to keep an eye on Eli's wound, when he suddenly felt a strange jittering feeling in his gut. It felt almost as if he had been shocked with a small amount of electricity, just enough to tickly his insides slightly.

The whole battle field seemed to waver for a moment, as if everyone – both pirates and marines alike – had felt the same electric jolt pass through them.

The battle didn't have time to start up again from its split-second distraction, as suddenly explosions of dark crimson blood appeared where there once were marines. Every marine in the vicinity – weather dead, alive, or unconscious – completely imploded upon themselves, leaving behind nothing but their lifeblood behind.

Blood of marine's now splattered almost every inch of their battle field, as well as the remaining inhabitants, the Heart Pirates. Aside from being shocked into silence and gory awe, everyone on Law's crew seemed to be contained in their corporeal bodies, unlike the marines they'd been fighting mere seconds ago.

Once again, Law was caught between the urge to smile sickly at the field of blossoming blood pools, and the urge to frown as he realized who was behind this massacre.

_Sarin's other personality must have been brought out_, he thought to himself. He stirred himself into movement just as a feral and frustrated scream echoed from the building that had been partially demolished by Sarin's arrows.

* * *

><p>The other side of Sarin screamed in animalistic fury as she clenched and re-clenched her fists with emphasized force. Seko watched from the sidelines, unable to move.<p>

He was covered in blood. When Anti-Sarin's hand clenched for the first time, all of the downed marines in the room, whether dead or alive had simply exploded into nothing but blood. Not even bone fragments or brain-matter was left behind – just pure red blood that now coated him in small droplets that had started to drip down his stained jumpsuit.

Anti-Sarin let out another scream of frustration, this time accompanied with furious words, "WHY WON'T IT DIE?"

Still standing across the room from her was the stranger, whom Anti-Sarin always called the Dead Man. He was smirking and his chilling eyes shown with inward laughter. He was also coated in blood droplets, but it didn't seem to bother him.

"Well," the Dead Man spoke with an obvious smile in his voice, "No matter how many times I see that, I still can't figure out what went wrong with you."

Anti-Sarin let her fists relax and fall to her sides. Her narrowed and sightless eyes scowled at the Dead Man as she muttered to herself, "Dead Man never dies. It still stands there. Why won't it die? Why can't I draw its blood?"

The Dead Man laughed, "How wonderful." He was looking out the windowless wall down at the battlefield below, where similar volcanoes of blood seemed to have sprouted, "You've expanded your reach – and it seems you found a way to spare allies as well. These years apart have been good to you, but I'm curious to see what other powers I gave you." The Dead Man turned his attention back to Anti-Sarin, "And I bet with that haki of yours, everything is amplified." A sickening smile spread across his lips.

A growl emanated from Anti-Sarin's gut and trembled all the way up her throat and through her clenched teeth. "The Dead Man and Cold Voices gave me nothing. Nothing but pain and darkness and sick blood."

"Oh, there you go again – don't start that rant about sick blood. I haven't got the time." Suddenly the Dead Man pulled a black leather zippered case that looked only large enough to hold something as big as a toothbrush, from his pants pocket. He started to unzip it as he kept speaking, "My mission was to gather information without engaging, but what fun would that have been? After eight years of looking, we suddenly find you – and they want me to just watch? Well, any-who, I'm not going to take you away yet – there are still some preparations to make – but just the same, I can't have this one here, remembering everything."

The Dead Man looked to Seko for the first time since he stepped into the room. The Dead Man unzipped the black case and pulled out a syringe filled with a good sized dose of something blue and quite foreboding. He started walking slowly and unbothered towards Seko, who could only back up so far.

Seko finally found his sense and pulled his long blade up into a defensive position.

The Dead Man only smirked at the bloodied blade as he came closer, "Don't worry – you won't die from this…probably." He gave a small and eerie laugh that seemed to suck the air from the room.

Seko lunged forward with his blade once the Dead Man came within his reach, but despite his usual expertise with the long blade, he missed.

Or rather, the Dead Man dodged so quickly that it seemed like Seko had been way off with his attack when he had actually been dead on.

Before he had time to spin around and face his attacker, Seko felt a pinch in his neck and a sudden rushing of cold and thick liquid into his body.

The Dead Man left the syringe in Seko's body as he quickly slumped to the floor, and turned once again to Anti-Sarin, "There is something odd though…the you that I know, and the you that stands before me at this very moment, doesn't seem to be something that your crew is fully comfortable with." He gave a quick nod towards Seko's motionless body, "He was scared of you – so I have to wonder, is my precious experiment just being used as a weapon by these witless rookies? Or is there something I'm completely missing?"

Anti-Sarin spat at his feet as he came closer, pulling yet another syringe from his leather case, "No one uses me. Dead Man should disappear unless it wants to die."

The Dead Man gave an amused sigh, "Is that so? I thought we already established that you can't kill me with that curious little power of yours?"

Anti-Sarin shook her head, "The crew she's with has power…especially her captain."

The Dead Man let another eerie laugh out into the bloody room, "As entertaining as fighting your captain sounds, I'm afraid dear Commander Kayne has asked me not to interfere with his business – though I'm sure he wouldn't mind now that he's been completely rearranged. I'm just supposed to observe today – and once I've given you this, that will appear to be completely true."

The Dead Man smiled his chilling smile and suddenly stepped up to Anti-Sarin's side.

She didn't fight him, knowing from experience that when he was this close, there was no way to get away from him.

She quickly sank to the crimson stained ground as well, and the Dead Man left the room like a bloodied ghost – leaving behind nothing but footprints of red that clung to the soles of his shoes.

* * *

><p>As Law, Bepo and Jackal entered the room, they saw a similar sight as the one outside. Blood splattered the walls and rubble that littered the room and pooled on the ground where the marine's had been before they were pulverized.<p>

"Damn," Jackal breathed as he took in the sight.

His eyes still gleaming with left over bloodlust, Law saw the motionless forms of Seko and Sarin, and took a few long strides to where they were. He came to his engine mechanic first and crouched down to feel the man's pulse.

It was faint and slightly erratic, but still there and beating. The blonde man was covered in blood like the rest of the crew, but relatively unharmed.

He stood back up and joined Jackal at Sarin's side. The man with the red and black plaid hat had already checker her pulse and looked up at his captain from his crouched position on the floor, "She's good. Completely out of it, but still breathing."

Law nodded, "Carry her down and get her to the ship with the rest of the guys. Teamer already called and told us he had the sub parked in Grove 9, further up the coast." Captain Trafalgar turned to Bepo, "Get Seko if you would. We need to hurry back to the sub. I'm sure that back up will be here eventually to figure out why the marine squads never reported back."

Bepo and Jackal nodded and picked up their respective crew members.

Law led them back down the stairs to the ground floor of the building, and they quickly stepped back out into the waning sunlight of the late afternoon.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry, I know that was short, and kinda choppy - but I thought breaking it here for the next chapter would end up being better.<strong>

**Anyways, hope you liked it! I'll try to update quickly with the next chapter (fingers crossed) and i will make sure it's longer lol**


	18. Chapter 17

**Uwahh! I am so so so SO SO SOO sorry for taking so long to update! OMB you guys have no idea how bad i feel for making you wait ='( I got a crippling case of writers block and it just recently lifted. I would completely understand if you guys hate me now lol but i hope that this time i'll be able to keep up with the story for good!**

**Time for **(very delayed)** Shout Outs!:**

**Motherloosegoose: **Thanks! I'm glad I was able to get the intensity strong enough xD

**Alpenwolf: **I loved the Battle Pan hehe It suits him pretty well :D

**Immaturechild: **hopefully there will be more answers soon lol Thanks for the review!

**Elielephant: **Well i'm sorry for the lateness of this update lol but I'm glad i was able to get Law's insanity down right - i had fun creating his little rant xD And thanks for all the information about the schizophrenia and DID - I completely thought that they were the same thing lol whoops - but while it's probably a little too late to go back and change the details now, it's still really interesting to know. I really can' t wait to take my psychology class next semester hehe Anywho - theres a little fun Jackalness in this one, though it's not nearly enough to make up for such a long time gap haha As always, thanks for the review! hope you enjoy

**Corkie: **Haha thanks! I hope you enjoy the newest update!

**Tintosha: **Thanks so much! It really makes me happy to know that people enjoy my story 3

**UselessThings: **Thanks for the review~!

**Monind: **Thanks a bunch! Hopefully the spelling is even better this time - i went through it a little more than usual to spot any sneaky mistakes haha

**killerpuppy: **Thanks so much for your review! I'm glad you like it xD

**Alright, I won't make you wait any longer ~ Enjoy~!**

**Disclaimer: I am not worthy enough to own One Piece.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 17<strong>

Phantom voices spoke through the darkness. At first they sounded distorted and fuzzy, but eventually I was able to understand what they were saying.

"Oi – I think she's waking up!" a loud but oddly sugary-sounding voice seemed to shout from nowhere.

"Hmm, she's slowly regaining consciousness – whatever she was given doesn't seem to be working as well as intended," A colder and slightly eerie voice echoed to me.

Everything was dark, but somehow it was more thorough than usual. As if I were floating in a thick sea of tar, compressed on all sides by the sticky black substance. My mind fought to remember. What happened? How did I get here? Where exactly was _here_?

I took in a sharp breath and tasted acrid air which was tainted by chemicals, medicines and the faint scent of stale blood.

Infirmary.

Suddenly, it started to come back to me…the battle. The rooftop. My arrows. Shouts and battle cries. The dirt road and spilled blood.

And now I was suddenly in the infirmary.

My eyes snapped open, despite being completely useless since they couldn't actually see anything, and my body threw itself into a sitting position. I had started to ask something, but my head suddenly collided with something extremely hard.

My thoughts dizzied again as I heard the honey-toned voice swear in pain.

I finally thought to turn my haki-sight back on, and suddenly the world of shadows became visible to me. It took my foggy mind a minute to realize what I'd collided with.

I rubbed my forehead, and watched Jackal's outline do the same.

"You have a hard head," he muttered, "But at least you're awake now."

"Sorry," I apologized for the head collision, "What's happening? The last thing I remember was going with Seko into the building across the street…and now I'm in the infirmary again. Did I -?"

"It seems your other personality took over for some reason," Captain's icy voice spoke from behind me. He was currently standing beside the metal operating table, which was occupied by Seko's motionless form.

My lips tightened, but I felt oddly relieved – Seko was with me when my memories suddenly stopped, meaning that he would have been within range of my other-self's "person pulverizing" ability…if he was in one piece and on that operating table, that meant that my other-self hadn't killed him.

"So what happened? I don't remember anything after getting onto the third floor…were we ambushed or something?" I asked.

"No clue – you didn't have any serious injuries other than a cut that needed a few small stitches, so your dormant personality shouldn't have surfaced because it thought your life was in danger…unless, you were in danger from something else. What exactly is the last thing you remember?"

I tried to concentrate harder on remembering, "Seko took me into the building to look for any salvageable arrows. We got onto the third floor where I'd taken out all the sniper guys, and then everything becomes…distant. It feels like there should be something more there, but it's fading."

"Hmm," Law thought aloud, "Well, I guess it's not odd that you don't remember. Whenever the dormant part of your mind takes over you don't remember anything you do. For some reason, your other consciousness took over, and eradicated all of the marine's bodies – even those who were already dead."

My brows creased, "Really? I wonder why. When we entered the building I made sure that all of the Marines in the building were either unconscious or dead before going into the room – it's unlikely that one of them woke up and attacked me without either Seko or I noticing…wait, so why is Seko passed out? Shouldn't he be fine?"

Law shook his shadowy head and walked around the operating table, "He should be, but he was drugged…you both were. I found needle marks on both your necks. Somebody injected you two with something."

"What? But I'm positive that no one else in that room could have been able to do that! They were either badly wounded or dead – there was no way they'd be able to sneak up on and drug the both of us."

"Maybe someone else came into the building after you two," Jackal suggested.

I let my head fall into one of my hands. Could that be possible? My memory was vague after a certain point, but I don't remember any other outlines entering the building. "I don't know…I guess it has to be possible since we were both drugged…is there any way to tell what this mystery person gave us?"

"Not yet," Law answered, "I drew some blood for each of you to examine it further and run a few tests. I should be able to determine its chemical make-up eventually, but it may take a few days…but whatever it was, seems to be affecting Seko more than you. I'm assuming it's the reason that you both passed out – it's been only two hours since the battle ended, and you've already woken up while Seko hasn't stirred at all."

"Huh…that's odd. Maybe I wasn't given as much as he was…"

"Possible," Law hummed, "But there's no way to tell. We'll just have to wait for him to wake up – he might remember more than you do."

I nodded, hoping that Seko would wake up soon.

"Now that you're awake, go help Broth in the kitchen – he and Rice are treating the minor injuries." Law leaned against the counter, and then turned to Jackal, "Go check up on Eli's bandages – they might need to be changed."

"Will do," Jackal answered. He turned and offered me a hand to help me out of the cot I'd been laying in.

I gave a quick "Yes, Captain" before taking Jackal's hand and using him to pull myself out of the low standing cot. As I stood up, my legs felt weak, and my knees threatened to give out. "Ugh," I groaned as I wobbled out the door beside Jackal, "I may have woken up, but I don't think the drugs have completely passed through my body yet."

Jackal looked down at me for a moment, and I could almost feel the smile radiating from his lips, "In that case…" Suddenly, his arms scooped me, one holding the bend of my knees and the other holding my back. With me in his arms, he started towards the stairs.

"Hey," I struggled, "I wasn't asking for help, you know."

"Too bad – I'm carrying you anyways," he answered, his smile still audible in his voice.

I gave a slight scowl, "Just put me down – I'll be able to make it down to the galley on my own."

He shook his head, "Nope – how could I possibly pass up a chance to carry such a pretty girl."

I gave a snort of laughter, "Flattery gets you nowhere with me."

"But it's not flattery if it's true," he said with his flirty voice.

I shook my head at him, "Whatever – if you're going to carry me around, at least hurry up. Broth might need some help."

After more merciless flirting from the honey-toned man and some light bickering on my end, Jackal finally brought me to the galley doorway and set me on my feet. A few of the guys hanging around the galley whistled at the two of us.

"I think I'll walk next time," I muttered at him.

Penguin's large hatted outline suddenly appeared at my side, "Oh no! Jackal's flirty-ness might have tainted poor Sarin. She needs immediate medical attention!"

Snickers spread across the room and Shachi soon popped up at Pen's side, "Lemme take a look," he said with a deeper voice than normal. He pretended to put a stethoscope in his ears and listen to my heart beat. "No – her heart rate is normal. She hasn't been infected."

Penguin put a hand to his forehead, "Thank God! She's been spared!"

"Oi," Jackal scowled in protest.

I shook my head and laughed at the two of them, "Weirdoes. So how'd the battle go on your guy's end?"

"Well," Shachi started, "Apparently the creepy-psycho you made an appearance and exploded all our opponents, but besides getting coated in Marine blood and suddenly seeing Jackal and Law carry you and Seko out of the building, it went pretty well."

I gave a nervous laugh, "Sorry about that – weird stuff always seems to happen with me, but I never get to remember it."

"Again? Maybe you have, like, short-term memory loss or something," Camin added from his seat at the table. He leaned back a bit to get more comfortable. I noticed his outline favoring his right side.

"Did you get hurt? How is everyone?" I asked quickly. From what I saw of the battle, it was pretty intense, though we obviously had the best chance of winning, and a few good injuries was likely.

Camin gingerly touched his side, "Yeah – got a shallow stab from this scrawny bastard, but it's not too serious. Eli had the only real bad cut – but Law fixed him up as soon as we were away from the battle field."

"Oh," Jackal interjected, "Speaking of Eli, I gotta go check on him." The flirty man gave a quick wave to me and headed back out the door to find Eli.

Most of the guys were gathered in the galley, either tending to their wounds or getting Rice and Broth to do it for them.

"There yeh are!" Broth's accented voice called from across the room. I saw him emerging from his kitchen with a small bowl and a roll of bandages in his hands.

I smiled at the older man, "Hey Broth."

"Yeh're finally awake – yeh were worryin' me."

"Sorry" I said with a small smile, "Is there anything I can help with?"

He hummed in thought and then answered, "Well, yeh could help me get this poultice on some o' the worse wounds." He handed me the bowl in his hands.

I sniffed at the contents of the bowl, and immediately brought it away from my nose, "Ugh! What is that? It smells like spicy, rotten fish."

He chuckled, "Tha's about right. It's an old remedy of mine that works for healin' cuts and such. Crushed fish innards, green tea, and paprika."

I shook my head at him and pinched my nose, "That can't possibly work…that sounds revolting."

He shrugged at me and ordered, "Just hold the bowl for me while I put it on their cuts."

I nodded and did as I was told, making sure to keep the bowl as far away from my body as possible to avoid taking in the rancid smell. As I was told, all the cuts seemed to be minor, so the work was quite quick. Everyone complained as Broth neared them with his horrible smelling poultice, but seeing as Law was a real doctor and hadn't so far said that it wasn't particularly harmful, they let the cook slather it on their wounds.

"Ugh," Julian flinched as Broth brushed his homemade remedy onto a cut on his neck, "This stuff stings more than pouring alcohol on your wounds. Can't your crack-pot remedies include anything that actually makes it feel better?"

"Well yeh shouldn' a gotten cut up in the first place yeh dimwit – you always complain about mah remedies but'r always the first one t'get hurt," Broth countered.

I couldn't help but laugh at the burly cook, "Broth, your accent's getting stronger."

The cook grumbled, "Happens when ah'm around these whinin' bastards too much."

The patched up crew stuck around the galley, mostly bragging about their fights and exchanging stories that sounded absolutely ridiculous. As Penguin threw himself into a story about scaring a marine away with just his laugh, I sat down beside Kinney who was keeping to himself in the corner, seeming to listen to the rambunctious stories in silence.

"Hey Kinney," I greeted so as not to startle him while he thought.

His head came up from resting on his hands, "Oh! Hello Sarin – are you feeling better?"

I gave a small smile, "Yeah, thankfully – I just wish I wouldn't go berserk every time there's a fight. I hate being a nuisance to everyone."

He fidgeted with his hands, "Don't worry – no one thinks like that. Everyone was worried more than anything."

We sat quietly for a moment, just listening to the wild stories that the others were sharing. I thought for a moment and realized that my conversations with Kinney had always been short and shallow – I'd never really had a decent conversation with him before.

I let my shadowy sight observe him for a bit. He was quite scrawny and small, but at least he was taller than Rice, who held the title for the shortest crewmember. His shadow always seemed lighter compared to everything else, as if he was somehow fading into the background and camouflaging himself with all the other shadows that made up the entirety of my world. I wondered why that was – if he really was that timid and practically invisible, why would he choose to be a pirate? Usually shy or scared people didn't choose such a frantic and dangerous lifestyle – but then, as I thought about it, Kinney didn't actually seem to be the scared type. I couldn't yet grasp his personality yet, but that was understandable since I'd only been with the crew a short time.

He gave a small wispy laugh, "Their stories seem so extraordinary – I don't have the imagination to come up with stuff like that."

I laughed as well, "At least they never let it get boring on the sub – I bet that's handy for longer voyages."

Kinney nodded and we both continued to listen to the guys as they shifted the attention from Penguin to JB who was sitting by the doorway apparently ignoring everyone else. They tried to get him to talk about his Captain days but the behemoth of a man only said bluntly, "That was then – why talk about it now?"

With that said the large man closed his eyes and looked as if he were trying to doze off for a bit.

"Sheesh, you're no fun at all," Penguin huffed. He spun around the room looking for a new subject when his outline stopped to face Kinney and I. "Sarin! How many guys did you take out before you went crazy?" he asked, quickly coming to my side.

"Hmm, well I got the entire sniper unit, plus two others, so about twelve or so," I tallied. There had been ten men in the sniper unit, and then the two others I shot near the entrance and exit of the bar.

Shachi whistled, "Pretty good for your first real battle – just wait until you _really_ see us in action though. We're pretty amazing when we're able to go all out."

"I bet," I smiled, "You'll have to show me some of that hand-to-hand combat I saw – It would be best if I could defend myself without the use of my arrows."

"Kinney, you should teach her," Pen said as he turned his hatted head towards the faded outline to my right.

"Kinney?" I asked.

"Oh yeah," Shachi confirmed, "He's the best at martial arts besides Bepo – he's a natural."

Kinney scratched at the back of his neck, "Well, I wouldn't say the best – I've still got a lot of room to improve – but I don't mind teaching you a bit, Sarin."

"Don't be so modest, Kinney," Penguin said as he clapped the scrawny shadow beside me on the back, "You've been here longer than most everyone else besides Bepo, Shachi, and I, and I swear you get better every time I see you fight."

"Really?" I turned to Kinney, "How long have you been with the crew?"

"Uh," Kinney said with his faded voice, "I was seventeen so it's been about two years – I joined the crew right when Law stole the submarine."

I gave out a startled laugh, "Wait, you guys stole the sub?"

Pen laughed fiendishly, "What did you expect? We were dirt poor criminals – you really think we'd pay money for our ship?"

"So you just happened across a submarine and decided to take it?"

"Not exactly," Kinney said with a faint smile in his quiet voice.

Shachi sat down at our table across from me, "There are a lot of factories in the North Blue, and on the island country where we picked up Kinney, there just so happened to be an aquatic engineering factory."

"And that's where we found our darling yellow submarine," Pen said with a swooning voice, "Though, it wasn't yellow until we painted it a few islands later."

While the word "yellow" held no particular meaning to me, the story was really fascinating. I'd never thought to ask about the crew's past before – mostly because imagining younger and even more immature members of the Heart Pirates seemed almost scary – but also because the past was often a touchy subject for people. I figured since my own past was lost to me aside from my years on Amazon Lily, it wouldn't be fair to ask others about theirs.

"Those days were pretty difficult – with only the five of us, making sure the sub ran smoothly was a huge pain in the ass, and no one knew how to cook very well. Ugh, meals in the old days were quite traumatic." Shachi groaned at his memory.

Pen pretended to faint and fall onto Shachi's shoulder, "Don't remind me."

"So did everyone on the crew come all the way from the North Blue?" I asked curiously.

Kinney shook his head, "Not everyone. Eli, Camin and Teamer all came from pretty early on in the Grand Line and Jean Bart joined barely a week before you did on Sabaody."

"So most of you have been together for a while then," I commented, "So who used to navigate before Teamer got –" but suddenly my question was interrupted.

Rice's voice spoke over the intercom system, sounding even more grainy than usual, "Sarin, we need you back in the infirmary."

I shot my shadowy vision outwards and slightly up, searching for the infirmary on the floor above us. I could detect the standing outlines of Law, Rice and Bepo taking up most of the free space in the smallish sick bay, but found myself smiling when I saw a fourth outline sitting up from the main operating table.

Seko was finally awake.

I quickly stood up, "I'll be back in a bit, guys."

"Tell Seko that he's a lucky bastard - he hasn't had to put up with Broth's disgusting home-remedies," Julian's complaining voice called to me as I neared the open doorway that led to the hall.

I laughed, "Will do."

As I left I could vaguely make out Broth's gruff voice giving Jules a nice scolding. I laughed again and hurried towards the stairs that would take me to the sick bay.

Despite hating the infirmary with a burning passion, I was eager to get there so that I could find out how Seko was doing. My haki-sight could see that he was sitting up and turned towards the Captain, but his movements seemed to be slightly slow and sluggish.

I remembered Captain talking about injection marks and the high possibility of drugs being in our systems. I didn't seem to be affected too much by whatever we'd been injected with, so I hoped the same went for Seko as well.

Finally I made it up the stairs and to the sliding door that let into the infirmary. I quickly threw open the door and made a bee-line for the operation table.

"Sarin!" Seko said, his usually warm voice sounding surprised.

"Ah, there you are," Law added, his voice sounding almost uninterested in the situation.

"How are you?" I asked quickly, "Are you alright?"

"Ah – yeah I'm okay. Aside from being a little out of balance I'm alright," Seko answered as he ran a hand through his messy hair, which looked odd to me since I was used to seeing him wear his visored cap all the time.

"Seko, tell her what you remembered," Law said coolly. He dropped into his rolling chair that sat at a small desk in the corner and spun to face the operating table. The way his voice was quite emotionless and stoic I could tell that the Captain was thinking about something. "Her memories leave off after you two reached the third floor of the building."

Seko turned to me, "Really?"

I nodded.

He brought a hand to his forehead and let it cover his eyes. He seemed to be searching his memories. "Well – I remember getting to the third floor…we made sure the Marines you'd taken out were actually down for good and then you went about looking for your arrows. I stood guard and…and…I think we heard a noise, but my mind feels really hazy."

I nodded vacantly, "Yeah – my memories ended like that too. Almost like they had faded out or something."

"Yeah…but I do remember something else…you said something…your voice sounded really different and surprisingly scary…" He ran his hand through his un-hatted hair once again and turned his head slightly down to look at his lap.

"Do you remember what I said?" I asked as I subconsciously held my breath. I didn't remember saying anything, but if my voice sounded strange, it might not have been me talking, but rather my dormant personality.

He nodded slightly, "You said 'Dead Man'…and it sounded as if you were identifying someone…hey, Sarin! Are you okay?"

Suddenly his voice seemed very far away from me, as if he were trying to talk to me from the other side of a vast chasm.

_Dead Man_.

Those two words rippled through my mind and body. My insides seemed to tighten and constrict, while the blood in my veins seemed to freeze. Those small words were somehow familiar, but I couldn't remember why. They seemed insignificant, but for some reason, those words terrified me. The Dead Man terrified me…

More voices were talking to me from over the vast chasm – they sounded concerned.

_Dead Man_.

Those words seemed to repeat inside of my head, blocking out the other voices that were trying to talk to me. My mind seemed to be lost and empty, but for those two terrible words.

Pain exploded across my cheek and somehow I was transported over the wide chasm to the side where all the other voices had been.

"Sarin! Snap out of it," Rice's panicked voice shouted into my ear. He was suddenly crouching beside me.

I felt my brows crease. My cheek was in pain, stinging deep into my skin. "Wa-What happened?" My hand came to my face and I gingerly prodded at the pain.

I heard Rice and Seko sigh almost in unison. "What the hell happened to you?" Rice asked. My shadowy vision saw his hands grabbing for my wrist. He seemed to be checking my pulse.

"Why am I on the ground?" I asked as I realized I was no longer standing beside Seko.

I took stock of my surroundings – Law was no longer in his rolling chair, but instead hovering behind me; Rice was crouching beside me, checking my pulse; Seko seemed to be staring worriedly at me from his place on the operating table, looking down at me as I sat in an odd crouch on the cold metal floor; and Bepo was now trying to inch closer with his constantly sniffing nose, as if he would be able to figure out what was going on with only his sense of smell.

Suddenly I turned back to Rice, finally coming to an understanding as to why my cheek hurt, "Hey – you slapped me!"

"I had to!" he argued, "You got all white and dropped to the floor – and then you started to mutter like a crazy person! What else was I supposed to do?"

"Ehh-? Muttering?" I asked.

Rice gave a huffy breath and grabbed my other wrist with his free hand, "Yeah – but you were just repeating Seko's words." He pulled me up from the ground and made sure I was stable on my feet before letting go of my wrists.

"Obviously those words have some kind of meaning to you…" Law said, his cold voice sounding slightly more amused than before.

"Ah…yeah, but I don't think they're familiar to me…I think it's the other part of me that knows them."

"Him," Seko corrected, "I'm pretty sure that _Dead Man_ is referring to a person…You said we were drugged, right Captain?"

Law nodded and tucked his thumbs into the front pockets of his jeans, "Yes – you and Miss Sarin had single needle marks on both of your necks. As it's unlikely the needles were used to draw blood, you were probably injected with something to knock you out. It's speculation, but it seems to be correct."

Seko stayed quiet in thought for a moment. Rice and I watched him intently, as if that would somehow clue us in on his thought process.

"The first time Sarin's other side surfaced, she remembered everything up until the point she fell unconscious, right?" he asked.

I nodded and Law answered with a quick, "Yes."

"Then why doesn't she remember as much this time? Shouldn't she know more of what happened if she only forgets whatever happens when Anti-Sarin takes over?" Seko absently tapped at his cheek while he thought, "And shouldn't I at least remember the face of the person who drugged me? I find it hard to believe that he was able to get behind me and then inject me."

Law gave a curt nod, "While the placement of the needle mark suggests that the attacker came at you from behind, I also find it hard to believe that he was able to sneak up on you both without being seen."

Seko was quiet for another moment and then spoke, "Well, it sounds odd and kinda impossible but…maybe whatever we were given is somehow affecting our ability to remember. It probably knocked us out, but I have a feeling that it's made us forget the few minutes leading up to the point where we were injected."

My hand came to my slackened jaw, "So – you think it somehow made us forget who attacked us?"

Seko nodded and turned to me, "It makes a little sense – while you have a bad record about forgetting things, I usually have a good memory for detail…it's really odd that I don't remember getting attacked."

This time it was Law's turn to be silent in thought. It was a matter of minutes before he even moved to breath. "Well…Seko's theory is interesting in the least. I drew blood samples from the both of you so hopefully we can run some tests and find out something about what was injected into you."

"Do we have that kind of equipment?" I asked – the machinery I imagined that it took to run such tests sounded to be a little extravagant for a pirate ship.

I felt Law's smirk break some of the seriousness in the infirmary air, "Nope – but I'm sure Fishman Island has something we can use." His voice suggested rather sinister thoughts, and I got a good hunch that the Captain was planning on hijacking one of the Fishman facilities.

I gave a little sigh and watched as Law headed for the sliding door that I hadn't closed all the way upon entering the infirmary just a bit ago. He spoke without turning back, "Rice, finish up in here; Seko and Sarin, get some sleep. Those drugs might have some side effects that we're unaware of."

His quiet footsteps soon disappeared, followed by Bepo's padded ones as they headed towards the navigation room.

* * *

><p><strong>Whew - again, i'm sorry for the long delay. I've had a few of those with this story, but at least i have been able to keep coming back to it. I hope to get out another update really soon, so keep your fingers crossed :) <strong>

**As always, thanks for reading!**


	19. Chapter 18

**Alright - sorry another delayed update, i was having a hard time closing this up for some reason lol anywho, here's Chapter 18~!**

**Shout Outs!**

**Killerpuppy: **Thanks! There's a little more about the "deadman" in this chapter but not much haha sorry - it probably just brings up more questions lol

**AliceLaw: **haha thanks for the review! I'm really glad you're likeing it so far xD

**Alpenwolf: **hehe Fishman Island is coming up very very soon and i have some plans to reveal more of Sarin's past lol something to look forward too

**Elielephant: **Hehe so there's a little Sarin/Jackal moment at the end especially for you hehe (okay well technically it wasn't _just_ for you, but i knew you'd be happy about it haha) and also look forward to more from Jackal~I have some nice plans for him hehe (And yes you may borrow him lol He's got plenty of free time on his hands lol)

**Aera the Ninja: **Haha yes i'm finally back, and hopefully i can stay back lol

**Lillian Bout: **Thanks for the review! And when you mentioned Anti-Sarin interacting with the crew, i got a really good idea for one of the coming up chapters hehe so thanks a bunch lol I'm glad you're liking it so far, and i you enjoy hope the upcoming chapters (staring Anti-Sarin hopefully haha)

**Okay ~ here's the new chapter xD Enjoy~!**

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><p><strong>~ Chapter 18 ~<strong>

"It feels just like jelly," I said with an amused smile caught in my voice as I pressed a hand against the thick bubble coating that blocked the doorway to the outer deck. To my haki-sight it looked like a swirling yet somehow transparent shadow that separated us from the outside world. Shachi, Penguin, and I had come to investigate after they realized I'd been passed out when they'd all stepped through it the first time.

The bubble coating was finally set and strong enough for people to pass through, meaning we were now ready to depart for Fishman Island. My insides were doing excited flips in anticipation.

"I can step through it right?" I asked eagerly to my hatted friends behind me.

Instead of answering, the two snickered to themselves and at the same time gave me a push forward.

I took a step to try to regain my balance and found my foot stretching through the jelly-like layer of bubble. The coating stretched with my leg and then suddenly, my barefoot poked a hole in it and was out in the fresh air.

I smiled to myself and slowly pushed the rest of my body through the soapy barrier and I was standing on the thick coating that covered the floor of the outer deck. I laughed as my toes squished into the soapy substance. I stepped through the barrier a couple of times, enjoying the tickling sensation the coating left along my skin as it wrapped tightly around my body and then suddenly released me into the open of the outside world or the sub's slightly more stuffy interior.

"Enjoying yourself?" Law's chillingly smooth voice asked amidst our stifled laughter. He had suddenly stepped out of the navigation room to find the three of us goofing off.

"Sorry Captain," I replied quickly, nudging Pen and Shachi in the ribs to quiet them up.

Pen tried to hide his laughter by covering his mouth, but a giggle escaped through his fingers, "She enjoyed that a little too much."

I saw Law's lanky figure shake his head at the three of us. He hooked his thumbs in his jeans' pockets and turned specifically to Shachi, "If you can find a place for it in your busy schedule, go release the air pack from the bottom of the sub. We're starting our departure in five minutes."

Shachi straightened up a bit, "Aye Captain." He gave Pen and I an elbow to the back for good measure and then passed through the shadowy barrier that blocked the door.

"Miss Sarin, go help Seko and Eli settle in as they're still not fit to work at their stations and then report to Broth. Penguin, prep the engines and make sure everything's ready for departure."

We both replied sharply and hurried off to take care of our orders. We split up once we got to the middle deck, Penguin continuing down the stairs and while I stopped a few feet away from the first men's quarters door.

My hands came to my hips as I saw Eli trying to sneak out of the room and head for the stairs. "Hey! Where do you think you're going with your arm in a sling like that?"

He spun on his heels at the sound of my voice, "Gah – don't sneak up on me like that, Red. I don't want a heart attack to go along with the stitches."

I frowned at him, ignoring the nickname he and a few of the other guys had given me – I didn't like the nickname, due largely to the fact that _red_ was a mere word to me and held no actual meaning.

"You heard what Law said – no moving around until you've healed a little more. Do you want to tear open your wound again?" The injured man had already ripped out a few of his stitches while trying to get himself a snack in the kitchen the previous night, and now the morning after his first incident he was trying to let it happen again.

He tipped the edge of his visor up with the hand that wasn't stuck in a sling, "I was just going to grab a deck of cards from Julian – I'm dying of boredom in there, and all Seko's doing is sleeping."

I shook my head and shooed the stubborn guy back into the room he shared with about half the other guys on the crew, "Get back into your hammock. Do you really think you'll be able to handle a deck of cards with just one hand? Anyways, we'll be setting off for Fishman Island in a few minutes so I'm here to help you get settled in. Teamer was saying that the first couple hours are bound to be a little rough as we descend through the different currents."

Eli let out a huffy breath like you'd expect from an irritated child, "Damn – it's not like my legs are broken. I don't understand why you have to keep me bedridden."

"You're clumsy," I said bluntly, "You've had those stitches in for less than twenty four hours and you've already torn them once. So just get back into your hammock like a good boy and try to sleep like Seko is."

Eli groaned and used me as a support system as he eased himself into a hammock that was lower to the ground, tied to the ends of two short steel poles that stuck out from the lower half of the submarine's wall.

He sucked in a sharp breath as he guided his arm into a comfortable position and then pulled off his visor. "Hey, uh, you wanna do me a favor?"

"If it'll keep you in your bed then sure," I sighed.

"The dresser over there – left row, third drawer down. Will you grab me a magazine? I'm gonna die of boredom if I don't have something to do."

I nodded and crossed the room to a chest of drawers that was about as tall as I was. I followed his directions and pulled on the third handle down to the left and reached into the opened drawer. I felt the corners and thin pages of quite a few magazines. "Does it matter which one, because they're all the same to me."

He gave a little cough, "No, any one is fine."

I nodded and pulled one off the top. I shut the drawer and frisbeed the magazine over to his direction. "That good?" I asked, "What kinda magazine is it?"

He gave another shallow cough, "Oh, uhhh, nothing in particular." His voice sounded oddly guilty, and I had a strange feeling that I didn't want to know the contents of his reading material.

I ran a hand through my hair, careful not to disturb the cat-eared headband, which I had not been able to ditch due to the guy's constant claim that it was a part of my image now, and turned away from Eli, towards Seko as he lay in a hammock on the wall adjacent to Eli's. He was snoring lightly as he slept – the drugs we'd both been given seemed to have affected him much more severely as he had woken up only once after being transferred from the infirmary to his own hammock in the sleeping quarters.

"Alrighty then, Seko seems to be sleeping heavily still and you're all taken care of. I'll send someone with your lunch so don't you dare let me catch you sneaking out of here," I gave a small smirk and tapped beneath my useless eye, "Remember, Eli, I can check up on you without even leaving the galley."

"You know," he sighed, "That's not exactly comforting."

I laughed, "It's not supposed to be. Anyways, if you need something, Broth and I are just a shout away."

"Got it – run along now," he shooed me away with his uninjured hand.

I shook my head at the man as he swung back and forth gently in his hammock and left the men's quarters for the galley to help Broth secure the contents of the cupboards and pantry. I stretched my shadowy sight to look at the lowest level of the sub and saw most of the rest of the crew hovering about near the engines and boilers. They were busy with a confusing number of dials, gauges, valves, and levers, but were quite confident and even somehow graceful with their movements. If I weren't needed in the kitchen I probably would have resigned myself to watching them work – it was always so interesting and exciting to watch, and I liked to imagine that they could somehow teach me to do it as well, despite my lack of normal sight.

I stepped into the galley and hurried into the kitchen where I could see Broth's plump outline locking down the drawers and cupboards. I slid into place beside him and took over the job of securing the pantry. There were rails that flipped up from beneath the shelves and locked into place that prevented all the food from falling into a massive pile of chaos. We worked quickly and listened as Bepo's odd voice spoke from the static-plagued speaker system.

"We'll be diving in less than one minute. Make sure all preparations are ready." The bear's voice cut off as I finished the last railing.

I stepped out of the pantry and closed the door.

Broth sighed behind me and slouched against the sink's edge, "Phew, just in time."

I nodded and smiled as I stretched my haki-sight to its farthest limits. I could see the bubble surrounding the sub as it had been inflated by Shachi and was now no longer clutching tightly to the metal exterior. We were bobbing up and down on the surface of the ocean – but as soon as echoing blips rang throughout the metal walls of the sub's interior, I watched from all directions as we started to sink into the shadowy depths of the sea.

Sure it wasn't much different from our normal dives from the surface, but the anticipation for our next destination made everything seem new and exciting. We were heading to an island at the bottom of the sea. Ten thousand feet down, through waters as dark as what I was left with when I turned off my haki-sight, and past many dangerous creatures was an island that shouldn't exist. I was excited to see the shadowy outlines of Fishmen and Mermaids, and find out what their lives were like on the ocean floor.

I must have been grinning like an idiot because Broth commented, "Yeh look pretty excited."

I grinned at the grizzled cook, "Only a little."

I could feel the sub sinking faster than normal, probably due to the bubble that surrounded us. Law had given the crew a brief description about what the bubble did, but almost everyone – including myself – barely got the gist of it. Basically, it protected us from being crushed by the intense water pressure and made us lighter or less dense than the water, making it easier for the sub to sink. The coating plus the submarine's own power was causing us to sink rather quickly, and I understood what Teamer meant about it being a bumpy ride.

I could feel our vessel almost wobbling as we descended deeper and deeper, and I could feel when we jumped from one current to the next by a shuddering jerk that the new direction of ocean-flow pulled us in.

I kept my shadowy sight constantly on lookout duty while I helped Broth out with odd jobs around the kitchen and galley. Frequently I'd check on the guys below or in the navigation room, and spent the rest of the time using my shadowy sight to patrol the waters around us in all directions. Law hadn't asked me to do this, nor was it really necessary considering the submarine had a working radar system, but I felt that I should do as much as I could to keep an eye out. After all, 70 percent of all ships that started the voyage to Fishman Island never made it to their destination – and I wasn't going to let us be caught in that large majority. I knew I would probably tire my "eyes" out unnecessarily, but I couldn't stop myself.

I was stubborn.

After a few jostled hours of non-stop work for most of the crew, Broth and I announced over the speaker system that food was ready. Lunch was a small and scattered affair. The guys would come up in small groups to grab PB&J sandwiches and fat crunchy pickles. It was kind of an odd combination, but it was all Broth and I could do without using the stove or oven, which would have resulted in a large mess due to the more exaggerated movement of the sub than usual. As I watched the guy's shadowy forms scarfing down their meals and then hurrying back to their stations, I realized our journey downward would be a little tougher than I first expected.

* * *

><p>Footsteps echoed down an empty hallway. They were steady and even, created by shiny black dress shoes. The owner of said shoes was a tall man with slicked back and shiny brown hair. A satisfied smile hung itself on his thin lips, and his faded and aged blue eyes stared straight down the hallway mirroring the same satisfied smile as his lips.<p>

Suddenly, the man came to a stop, and spun on his heels to face an overly large door directly to his left. He took two large and sweeping steps towards the door and seemed unfazed as they swung inward automatically without him ever touching them. He continued forward as if the door had been open from the start, and continued to do so even when the large door closed behind him.

The room was lit by sunlight that flooded in from tall arched windows, and was revealed to be almost bare except for a desk directly opposite the large door that sported nothing but a few writing supplied and a sleeping Den-Den Mushi.

The man continued towards the desk, his footsteps still clicking loudly on the cold tile floor, and sat himself on an empty patch of the desk's surface. The smiling man stared out the window for a few moments before picking up the Den-Den's transmitter, which successfully woke up the green snail.

He held the metallic end to his mouth and pressed the small button on the side. He listened to it ring a couple of times before a sharp and analytical voice disturbed the ringing, "Yes, what is it?"

The smiling man gave a chirpy and chilling laugh, "Good afternoon to you as well, Doctor."

"Oh," the doctor on the other end said as he let out a strained breath, "It's _you_. Well? How did it go on Sabaody?"

The smiling man hummed, "Magnificently. Our little runaway seems to have progressed much better than we'd hoped – but I don't want to make our move quite yet. There are still some things I'd like to find out before we attempt to get our precious 5A back."

The doctor groaned, "You confronted it, didn't you…"

"Relax, Doctor, she doesn't remember our little discussion. I used the new serum we developed."

"But you know that hasn't been fully tested yet – and on 5A who knows if it'll work properly," the doctor groaned again, "Seriously, you might be the most brilliant scientific mind other than Vegapunk, but you take too many risks. 5A is known for her resilience to drugs…"

"Stop worrying, Doctor – she may be more resistant than others, but if you give her enough, it'll work. Trust me – I'm the one who created her, after all." The smiling man ran a hand along his slicked back hair and lifted one of his long legs to cross over the other.

"If you say so – but what really matters is when you'll bring it back. It's finally surfaced after eight years, so we're curious to see how it's modifications are holding up – she's the only one from the first batch to survive this long."

The smiling man hummed, "Don't be in such a rush – as I've said, I want to test a few more things with her – but I'm quite positive you and the rest of the lab rats will be utterly amazed at her power. Anyways, I have a request: I want you to send subject 14K to Mariejois."

"WHAT?" the doctor shouted. The sound came from the bored-looking Den-Den's mouth, "Are you serious? That one…that one…"

"You said a few weeks ago that you wanted to field test it, right? So why not now? Besides, 14K could be a wonderful help in catching our little runaway if its modifications prove to be a success."

"But testing it so suddenly – wouldn't it be better to keep it within the labs a little longer and testing it in the tanks first? Let's also not forget the recent…hiccup in its treatment process. There were quite a few casualties. If the same problem occurs in public –"

"Haven't I told you to quit worrying? If something goes wrong I'll just terminate it. It's not as though there aren't others in the K category. If 14 becomes problematic it won't hinder our research to kill it. I only ask for 14 because it so far has proven to be the strongest of its category – and its unique abilities will prove quite helpful in my trip down to Fishman Island."

The doctor on the other end of the Den-Den line sighed, "So basically, it's because of the incident the other day that you want to test it out."

The smiling man gave a chirpy laugh, "You're quite right. So send it to me in Mariejois along with a good supply of its medications. I'll take him down to Fishman Island with me to search for our little runaway."

"Alright, fine – shall I prepare you a ship as well?"

"There isn't a need, Doctor," the smiling man replied.

The doctor sighed once again, "Of course there isn't – anyways make sure to keep us updated…and bring back 5A!"

The smiling man gave another laugh, "I got it, I got it – I'll see you when I bring back my little pet."

He set the transmitter back into its designated slot in the snail's shell, and the Den-Den's eyes once again closed after the connection was successfully broken.

The smiling man stared out the window, his aged blue eyes still smiling as he basked in the sunlight. "This is going to be quite interesting," he said to the empty, sunlit room as he pushed himself off of the desk. He took a few small steps forward and came to the window. He pressed a rather delicate and graceful looking hand against the cool glass and his smile grew to a large and frightening grin, "I really can't wait."

* * *

><p>At a few minutes until five in the afternoon, Teamer's tired voice echoed through the sub via the speaker system, "We've finally reached the current that will act as our guide down to the island so we can get back to our normal routine – engine guys get everything stabilized and locked into place. The waters shouldn't be so rough anymore now that our course has flattened out some, so knock the power down to 45. Anything to add Captain?"<p>

There was static-filled silence over the speakers that was soon interrupted by Law's icy voice, "Good work so far, but don't let your guard down. We'll keep up shifts through the night – two for the engine room, and one for the boiler at the very least. You can sort that out yourselves later. Kinney, I'd like for you to take over the helm for a bit, so come to the navigation room."

His voice cut off with a click and I turned to Broth with a sigh of relief, "Well at least it's not so bumpy now."

The cook nodded, "I can actually cook somethin' for dinner instead o' throwin' together sammiches."

"Sounds good to me – you get started. I'm going to go check on the guys real quick and bring Prim up so she can eat something. She's probably angry at me for keeping her locked up all day."

"Alrigh' – hurry back though. I might need yer help with somethin' or other." He stood up from one of the galley benches and disappeared past the curtain into the kitchen.

I smiled and left the galley.

I swung by the men's quarters first to make sure Eli hadn't actually died of boredom as he'd vocalized earlier, and found that he and Seko were both sleeping. Seko was still breathing quietly and steadily, and Eli was now adding his loud snoring to the mostly empty room. I wanted to laugh, but forced myself to hold it in, in case I woke one of them up from their nap.

I hurried down the curved staircase and popped in on the engine guys. I stood in the open doorway and tried to ignore the intense increase of heat on this floor. For a moment I watched the two large hunks of metal that made up the two engines of the ship. They were spaced apart so that there was one on each side of the sub, and gave off a lot of heat due to all the power that pulsed through its many moving parts. I gave a small knock on the doorframe to let the guys know that I was there and asked, "How goes it?"

From just their shadowy outlines, I could tell that all five guys working in the engine room were worn out and tired – they were slouching their shoulders forward more than usual as they stood and moved a little sluggishly as they patrolled about the two massive engines and the monitor screens that lined the left and right walls.

"Ah – hey Sarin," Shachi said with a small smile in his tired voice, "Pretty good," he answered. He ran a hand across his forehead and sat down in a chair situated in front of the monitors.

"Lies," Penguin groaned as he squashed down Shachi's droopy hat and leaned against his sitting friend's head, "I'm dead-tired."

"Isn't the expression supposed to be _dog_-tired?" Camin asked as he pushed up a lever on the right engine's body and then yanked it back down so it faced the floor.

"Doesn't matter – I feel dead at the moment," Penguin complained. Suddenly he launched himself off of Shachi's head and hung himself over Julian's back, "Carry me, Jules!"

"Oi!" Julian shouted angrily. The unlucky crewmember who'd just-so-happened to be within Penguin's reach tried to shrug out of Pen's hold, but wasn't having much success, "Put a shirt on you perv! Don't touch me with your sweaty body."

I took a closer look at Pen's outline and noticed that his torso was less bulky than usual. Apparently he'd slipped off the top half of his jumpsuit and tied the arms around his waist to help lessen the heat of the engine room.

"Don't be like that, Jules – it feels much better like this," Penguin whispered in Julian's ear with funny purring voice.

"Gah!" Julian shouted as he started wriggling with more force, "Don't do that you bastard."

Vic sighed and settled into a seat beside Shachi, "He's obviously not _that _tired if he has enough energy to terrorize Jules like that."

Shachi nodded, fixing his hat which had been deflated partially by Penguin's weight, "Poor, poor Julian."

I stifled a laugh and sighed at the scene, "Well, once you guys have dinner I'm sure you'll all feel much better. Not sure what we're having yet, but it'll definitely be more filling than sandwiches."

"Hurray!" Penguin cheered, finally pulling his arms away from their place around Julian's neck, "I'm starving as well as tired so hurry up!"

I laughed, "Alright – I'll go after I check up on the rest of the guys."

"Oh! If you're going that way, I'll come too," Penguin snickered, "I bet Rice is sleeping in the laundry room…it's the perfect chance to prank him."

I smiled, "That sounds like a great idea." I shot my haki-sight further down the hallway and came to see Rice's short and scrawny outline sitting on a stool in the small laundry room with his back leaning into a corner of the room and his feet propped up on the edge of the large basined sink. I could see his shadowy form moving rhythmically in sleep-breathing and wondered how he had managed to sleep like that through such a bumpy ride.

Pen pulled a permanent marker out of some unseen pocket and crept down the hallway on the tips of his toes. As we passed by the door to my room I quickly slipped in and picked Prim up from her nest in the bathroom sink. She hissed lightly at me for disturbing her sleep, but settled quickly into her favorite position around my waist. I hurried back out into the hall and caught up to Pen who had already entered the doorless opening of the laundry room.

I stayed out in the hall with my head peeking into the room – it was a relatively small room (no bigger than my tiny bedroom) that was packed with crowded furniture. A bulky washer and an equally massive dryer, a deep basined sink, cabinets with a counter top lining the right wall, and overhead cupboards a few feet above the counter. The only empty corner was the one that Rice was currently sleeping in.

I watched with an eager smile as Penguin's outline neared the Sleeping Rice's with the uncapped permanent marker in hand

I panicked unnecessarily for a moment when I saw another outline approaching me from farther down the hall, but relaxed when I realized who it was. I turned to the new comer with a finger to my lips, "Shh," I whispered and then gave a beckoning wave, "Come here."

The new outline nodded and crept up behind me. As I turned my head back to peek into the room, Jackal's large hands came down on my shoulders and his head peeked into the room just above mine. "What's going on?" he asked in a whisper.

"We're playing a prank on Rice – it looks like he's been sleeping all day, so he's kinda asking for it," I held in a laugh and tightened my grip on the empty doorframe.

Jackal and I watched as Penguin brought the uncapped marker to Rice's sleeping face and started gently drawing on his skin, hoping that the subject wouldn't wake up before the masterpiece was done.

I felt a little disappointed that I couldn't see what Pen was drawing on Rice's face, so I was forced to ask Jackal what was going on.

"Well so far there's a samurai mustache, a lopsided looking monocle, the word slacker written in thick letters on his forehead, and a dick on his cheek," Jackal listed.

For once I was glad I couldn't see, I thought absently. I wasn't sure if I was ready to know what that part of the male anatomy looked like.

Penguin finally noticed the new member of our pranking team and asked in a loud whisper, "Anything else we should add?"

Jackal shook his head and said with a smile in his voice, "It's perfect."

Penguin gave a mock bow to the audience and sheathed his weapon.

I pulled out of Jackal's hands – which were still resting comfortably on my shoulders – and tip-toed up to Rice. I extended an arm and looked down at my coiled battlesnake. "Up, Prim," I commanded.

The snake flickered her shadowy tongue at me and slithered up my torso to wrap around my extended arm. Her head rested in the palm of my hand and I brought her face right up to Rice's ear. Prim, it seemed, knew exactly what I wanted her to do. She flicked out her tongue once again.

The short man did not react well to the tickling sensation in his ear.

Rice let out a loud, startled shout and managed to topple himself off of the stool. He landed on his behind and breathed in panicked gasps.

Meanwhile, Pen, Jackal and I were laughing hysterically.

Rice looked up at us all and finally spotted the battlesnake wrapped around my arm – who also seemed to me laughing at Rice's rude awakening with almost chirpy hisses. "Damn it," he breathed, "You jerks." He rubbed at his ear while looking up at the three of us. I could feel the intensity of the scowl that I was sure had taken over his facial features.

"That worked better than I expected," I laughed, giving Prim a scratch on her head scales, "Good girl."

"I was having a really cool dream about mermaids and…" Suddenly Rice's hands came to his face. He was staring intently at the sink in silence.

I didn't quite understand why he stopped all of a sudden, but Penguin gave a victorious laugh, "That's what you get for sleeping when the rest of us are slaving away."

Jackal bent towards me and warned, "We might want to step back a little."

Finally I realized what must have happened and bit my lip to hold in the laughter. Rice must have caught his reflection on the side of the sink, seeing as it's made of metal.

He stared in awe at the sink which depicted his doodled-on reflection, "You…Penguin you bastard!"

Suddenly Rice was on his feet and Penguin was running away as fast as his legs could carry him, laughing loudly in victory. Rice chased after him and moments later they disappeared up into the stairwell.

Jackal laughed and gave Prim a pat on her head, "Good work, snake."

I giggled, "His reaction was great – he was pretty angry."

Jackal sighed and crossed his arms, "So what's our kitty-cat doing down here? Couldn't wait till dinner to see me?" I could hear the suggestive smile in his voice as he leaned against the laundry room's doorframe.

I shook my head and laughed, "I came to get Prim and got pulled into Penguin's prank on the way. I was going to stop by the boiler room as well, but now I don't think I have the time – Broth wanted me to hurry back to the kitchen."

"I'm hurt – so if I hadn't happened to pass by, I wouldn't have gotten to see you."

I mentally rolled my eyes and replied sarcastically, "_So_ sorry – however can I repay you?"

I could once again feel the smile radiating from his lips, "I can think of a few ways…_but_ I'll settle for escorting you back up to the galley." He slung an arm around my waist and led me out into the hall.

I knew I had no other choice than to let him, so I gave in. "Up we go then," I replied as I let him pull me towards the stairs by the waist.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hey guys ~ sorry there wasn't much going on with that chapter, but there's some definite action to look forward to in the next one xD**

**Thanks for reading~!**


	20. Chapter 19

**Feel free to scold me - despite my decision to update quicker, it didn't happen. A few random ideas invaded my brain and I got lost on those for like two weeks...hence the late update. But, I promise this story is here to stay until I finish! (which, by the way, isn't really planned yet - my stories always flow better if I don't try to micromanage all the details lol) So, again, sorry for the lateness - I hope you enjoy this new chapter xD**

**~Shout Outs!~**

**Alpenwolf: **no no no lol the deadman doesn't have nice things planned for our little Sarin - haha and Rice hears your sympathies

**Elielephant:** lol i was wondering where Jackal had gotten off to ~ but as long as he has food and water I'm not worried hehe he probably likes the attention

**the everchanging: **Thanks! I randomly got the idea for the prank and was like "I have to use this" hehe glad you like it :D

**Random808Tweeker: **lol yeah i realized about halfway through the story after i'd already explained her split mental state, that i'd used the wrong disorder haha my laziness is borderline a mental illness, so i was planning on just making an author's note the next time her disorder comes up about how i used the wrong thing earlier (I completely thought they were the same thing until recently) and just using the right term from now on instead of going back and editing it lol but despite that kinda important flaw, i'm glad you like the story xD

**ShaDow EmpIre:** Well thanks for reading lol I'm glad you're liking it xD

**~ Enjoy~!**

**~ Chapter 19 ~**

"Damn," Broth grunted, "Bastard really got yeh good." He held Rice's graffitied face by the chin and turned it from side to side.

Rice pulled his face out of Broth's grasp and whined, "Can't you do anything about it? I tried soap and water but that only smeared it around a little. Don't you have like, a secret remedy or something?"

The grizzled cook hummed in thought, "Well, bleach is no good – but I also heard that rubbin' toothpaste on it and lettin' it dry helps to pull the ink out o' the skin. Yeh could try that."

Rice sighed and stood up, "Well, I guess it can't hurt."

I watched his slumped figure hurry out the doorway towards the large bathroom that connected the two crew quarters' rooms. I laughed once he disappeared from sight, "I feel bad but it was so funny to see him chase after Penguin like that." Prim slithered her way up my body and draped herself around my neck and shoulders like a living scarf. I gave her a small pat on the head – she had helped with the prank and the reptile still seemed to be enjoying herself because of it.

Broth let out a little chuckle, "So that's where yeh got off to – I was wonderin' why it was taken yeh so long to get back."

I nodded and stood up from the table I'd been leaning against, "So what can I help with? Did you start making dinner already?"

The cook nodded, "I'm handlin' dinner so yeh can work on puttin' away the clean dishes and startin' the coffee – it's gonna be a long night for the guys, so they'll need it."

"I'm on it," I quickly replied. I pulled Prim off of my shoulders and set her down on one of the benches. I pointed a stern finger at her and commanded, "I'll get you something to eat in a bit so stay here and be a good snake. Don't wander off or cause any trouble."

The snake flickered her tongue at me in response and coiled herself up into a cone of scales. I took her actions as a confirmation of my orders and followed Broth through the curtain that separated the galley from the kitchen.

* * *

><p>For once, Teamer wasn't in his usual chair in the navigation room, but was instead replaced by Kinney. He didn't quite fill out the seat as Teamer usually did, and somehow looked smaller than usual due to the sudden change. Kinney fidgeted about with a few dials and switches and then let his hands return to the steering controls. Since he had been the original navigator before Teamer joined, he knew how to work the submarine and was the back-up navigator when Teamer needed a break. Law also knew how to work the ship, since he was his after all, but he usually had something other things to do.<p>

Law stood behind his scrawny subordinate and spoke with his chilling voice, "Teamer said that the Downward Plume should be about six hours ahead of us along this current. Just take over for a couple hours while he gets some rest."

Kinney nodded, "Yes Captain. Have there been any problems with sea kings?"

"Just a small one," Law answered as he hooked his thumbs into the front pockets of his jeans, "But I was able to prevent it from attacking." The incident had occurred just an hour ago, while they were still on their decent. A relatively small sea king thought to attack the bright yellow obstacle in its path, but Law was able to easily surround the creature with a transparent, blue-hued _Room_ and keep it trapped long enough for it to lose interest with the ship.

"That's good – though hopefully we won't run into any more, because with the bubble coating surrounding us, it could be difficult to actually kill them."

Law gave a small nod, "Page me over the intercom if something comes up."

"Yes, Captain," Kinney repeated as Law stepped out of the thick plated door of the control room. Instead of going down to his room or over to the infirmary, Law turned in the opposite direction and opened the heavy metal door that would lead outside.

He was greeted by freezing cold air that seemed to hit him like a brick wall, but Law didn't seem fazed. He was used to weather much colder than this – this stale coldness caused by the deep waters was nothing compared to the winters in the North Blue. The pirate Captain walked with his muted steps towards a neon orange blob that was sitting curled up in the middle of the outer deck.

He had known that Bepo would be out on the deck – the bear often complained about how hot it was in the sub when they dove, so it was reasonable to expect him to retreat outside now that he had the opportunity. Law watched silently for a moment as his first mate watched the fish inhabited waters above from his odd curled up position. Bepo's black eyes were glossy as he stared vacantly upward.

Law's lips tightened – there was something wrong…

"What's with that stance?" The Surgeon of Death asked as he leaned against the bright yellow external wall of his submarine. The bear never curled up like that, unless he was trying to sleep – and with his eyes so wide and glossed over like they were, it was obvious that sleep was far from the bear's mind.

Bepo suddenly uncurled himself and lay down flat on the deck with all of his paws outstretched. "I have a bad feeling, Captain," the bear spoke slowly. His eyes didn't leave the waters above that teamed with life just outside their bubble.

"What kind of bad feeling?" Law asked curiously.

Bepo gave a quick shake of his head and said in an odd voice, "Not sure, Captain, but it feels weird. My nose is twitchy."

While Law didn't know what would cause the bear's nose to twitch, he did know that his first mate's instincts were rather sharp. If he was wary about something, it was most likely decent grounds for precaution.

"Another sea king, maybe?"

Bepo shook his head again, "I don't know…"

Law gave a small sigh and pushed himself off of the wall of the sub, "Well keep a lookout – if anything looks suspicious, tell me immediately."

"Yes, Captain," Bepo said slowly, still with his glossy gaze fixed upwards.

Law retreated back into the thicker and warmer air of the sub and let the thick steel door click loudly closed behind him. The trip so far had been trouble-less, aside from the little sea king that tried to attack them. But other than that trivial matter, nothing had gone wrong…that in itself was enough to cause suspicions.

This was the Grand Line – nothing should come easy.

A sadistic smile upturned the corners of Law's thin lips – things were going to get much more interesting from here, and the Surgeon of Death was terribly excited.

* * *

><p>All of the guys, Captain and Bepo included, were sitting in the galley. The two longer tables were filled with the brunt of the crew, while the small table in the corner only held Law, Bepo , and an exhausted Teamer, who's shadowy pom-pom kept tottering about on his head as he nodded off every couple of minutes or so.<p>

I sat on the edge of the table nearest the doorway next to Eli, who had loudly insisted that I let him out of solitary confinement – as he had called his mandated bed-rest. While I tried to tell him that it couldn't technically be called "solitary" since Seko had been in there the whole day with him (albeit, he was asleep the entire time), Eli wouldn't stop complaining until I gave in and let him come to dinner with everyone else.

Loud conversations through bites of food bounced off the metal walls, the loudest of which centered around Rice and his decorated face. There was a lot of laughter – most of it belonging to Penguin and Shachi.

"It's your own fault for sleeping while the rest of us were slaving away," Penguin said for probably the twentieth time that day, between bouts of giggles, "You have no one to blame but yourself."

Rice took a vicious bite of his mashed potatoes, "No – you are fully to blame! And Sarin was an accomplice this time too." Rice groaned and rubbed at his cheeks.

I held in a snicker, "We~ll, technically Prim was the accomplice."

I could feel his scowl narrow at me, but whatever his response was, it was drowned out by laughter. Miles patted Rice's back, "There, there, mate – it'll come off eventually…you'll just have a dick on your face for a couple days."

"At least the monocle around your eye is classy," Shachi added.

Rice buried his face in his hands and leaned against the table via his elbows, "Ugh, I'm gonna look like this when I meet the mermaids."

Miles shook his head, "Bad luck, mate – I bet they'll think you're a creep."

This only caused Rice to groan again and the discussion to turn towards the mermaids awaiting them on Fishman Island.

"I hear that they go around topless all the time," Camin said with a mouth full of food.

"Really?" Eli asked sounding a little too excited.

Camin's head nodded. He leaned across the table to get closer to Eli, "I also heard that they give BJ's that'll blow your fuckin' mind."

I pursed my lips – the conversation had gone somewhere I couldn't follow. BJ obviously stood for something, but my mind was drawing a blank…but if it blew someone's brain, as Camin had said, maybe it was a type of gun?

Vic hummed in thought, "Well, if you think about it, that's really all that they can do with _it_…"

Broth, who was sitting at the second table, turned around in his seat and pointed a thick, shadowy finger at the guys, "Oi! Stop talkin' that kinda talk while yeh're eatin' my food, yeh bastards. That's not a dinner conversation!"

But the guys ignored the grizzled cook's lecturing completely.

"Hey Jackal," Vic said to the flirty man sitting across from Pen and Shachi, "I bet you're excited too, eh?"

Jackal only shrugged and took another bite of food.

"What?" Vic asked, sounding quite alarmed, "You don't want to see beautiful, topless, BJ-giving girls?"

"It's a sign of the apocalypse! Everybody run!" Shachi shouted.

"Duck and cover!" Penguin added as he threw himself under the table.

Miles laughed and shook his head, "Oh, don't get the man started on the mermaids. He'll get depressed."

"Why?" Camin asked, sounding as alarmed as Vic was, "I thought it was a given that he'd be excited for the mermaids…"

Miles shook his head and Jackal stabbed his fork down into his food, "What good is a topless, beautiful girl who gives great head if I can't have sex with her?"

I was very confused now – what do heads have to do with sex? I still didn't understand what sex was, but listening to the guys talk about it was making me even more confused. I decided I'd try to tune out the rest of the conversation to prevent me from getting confused further, but of course, I was too curious for my own good.

Miles tapped his temple beneath the rim of his cowboy hat, "Think about it, mates – their lower halves are fishtails. They have no legs, and therefore, nothing between them."

"Hmm," Shachi thought aloud, "Very true. I understand Jackal's frustrations."

Penguin nodded as he surfaced from beneath the table, "Phew, glad there was a reason behind Jackal not wanting to see topless girls – I was sure the world was ending."

"Then Fishman Island's going to suck for you, Jackal - if there aren't any human girls around, you'll probably go crazy. You can't go without sex for very long or else your mind will explode," Vic said between bites.

"That might be a medical problem," Shachi laughed, "Rice, is there anything that will prevent Jackal's head from exploding?"

Rice finally unburied his face and turned to stare at Shachi, "Sorry. His condition is incurable. Too bad Penguin doesn't have a head-exploding disease…"

"What'd you say about me being a disease?" Pen asked suddenly.

The guys erupted into insults and the rest of dinner passed like usual, with lots of laughing and rowdy shouts. Broth once again tried to shut the guys up and get them to quit messing around while they were supposed to be eating his food, but as always they ignored him. I gave Broth a small smile and a shrug to tell him to give it a rest, but he just shook his head at me and turned back to his own table.

Finally, once all the plates were cleared and oh-so-generously tossed over in my direction since I was getting up to take my own plate to the kitchen, the topic for deciding the two shifts came up.

The decision was made rather quickly, as the guys have had to figure out their own schedules quite a few times over the years. They divided themselves into two shifts: the first consisting of Bepo and Kinney as navigators, Shachi and Pen for engine maintenance, and Jean Bart and Vic for the boiler room; while the second shift five hours later would have Teamer in the navigation room, Julian and Camin working for the engines, and Jackal and Miles on the boilers. They were reduced to such minimal numbers due to both Seko's and Eli's inability to work.

I felt bad knowing that the guys would get such a little amount of sleep through the night so I offered to help. "I can wake the second shift up when it's time, at least," I suggested.

"Don't worry about us," Shachi said, "You should get some sleep – you look just as tired as the rest of us."

But I shook my head. "No, I'll stay up too. You need someone to wake you up, right? This is something I can do, so just let me." I said stubbornly.

"Well, I won't object to a special wake-up call from my kitty-cat," Jackal said with his honey toned voice as he poked at the cat ears atop my head, "But it's hard to wake me up. You might have to get creative…"

Broth hit the flirty man upside the head, "Stop gettin' stupid ideas."

"You're no fun, you old man," Jackal said in an almost pouty voice.

I sighed and looked to the rest of the crew, ignoring Jackal as he propped himself up on my shoulder, "So it's decided then. I'll be the wake up call."

The guys gave in just as Captain interrupted the small meeting. Law stood up from the smaller table in the corner, followed closely by Bepo. "I'll be up as well. If anything happens, tell me immediately. Don't forget that we're in the Grand Line – keep a close lookout."

"Anything specific we should look out for, Cap'n?" Penguin asked.

"Trouble," Law answered with his cold smirk audible in his voice. With that he walked with his quiet steps through our crowd of people and disappeared in the direction of the stairs. Kinney and Bepo were also quick to leave, but they would be heading up to the navigation room. The rest of the crew piled the last of the dinner plates into my hands and dispersed for either their hammocks or the low deck. Broth and I were left in the kitchen once again, and we quickly went about our jobs to tidy up the galley and get it all cleared up for the night.

It took Broth and I about an hour to wash dishes, dry them, and secure them in the cabinets, but once everything was clean and the kitchen was clear, we locked up the pantry and refrigerator as well as all the cabinets. Everything was locked down tight as Law had told us the day before – we would be going through what he called the Downward Plume sometime tonight, and while he didn't explain exactly what it was, I got the main gist of it. We had to go down – straight down – and if things weren't secured tightly, the kitchen would be a complete mess.

"Alright, girl" Broth sighed as he pulled the apron loop from around his neck and folded the course cloth over one arm. He fidgeted with his short, mushroom-shaped Chef's hat and turned to me, "After gettin' the second shifters' up, dump the leftover coffee and get to bed. Yeh look as tired as a dog."

I gave him a mock salute and laughed, "Isn't it rude to compare a girl to a tired dog?"

"Oh shut up, yeh pest – I'll compare yeh to whatever the hell I want to," He said with a chuckle in his gravelly voice. "G'night," he called with a curt wave as he disappeared through the curtain that hung between the galley and kitchen.

"'Night, Broth," I replied, "I'll try not to ruin your kitchen."

I heard him laugh, and saw his thick outline shake his head as he headed out the open doorway of the galley and towards the men's quarters. I couldn't help the happy smile that came to my lips – even though I was getting to be pretty close friends with everyone on board, Broth was definitely the person I was closest too. Somehow, when I was with him, I felt the same as when I was living with Poppy, my foster mother. The same sort of warmth spread through my heart – and all he had to do to cause it was say a few gruff words, or bellow out one of his deep laughs that seemed to bounce off the metal walls of the submarine. Just being in the kitchen with him, helping with dishes and dinner, I felt as happy as I did with Poppy when we would go on our long walks through the forests surrounding the town on the Women's Isle.

My smile widened as I thought to myself – if Poppy was my foster mother, then Broth was most definitely my foster father. While I probably wouldn't say that aloud to him – especially considering the fact that I'd only been with the crew for a few weeks at the most – it made me happy to just think it.

I shot my shadowy sight out to the entirety of the sub. I saw Kinney sitting alone in the navigation room, Penguin and Shachi monitoring the engines, Jean Bart and Vic moving about the boiler room, and Bepo wandering about in one of the storage rooms on the low deck, most likely securing all of the other random supplies and tying down anything loose. The rest of the crew were lying in their hammocks, moving only slowly with sleep-breaths and rocking back and forth slightly from the sub's subtle movements.

I usually tried to avoid watching Law while he was in his room – it somehow seemed wrong – or creepy, maybe – to spy on the Captain, but with my eyes already exhausted due to keeping a lookout all day, I was having a hard time excluding his room from my sight-span. He wasn't doing much, really. Law was just sitting on his bed – because, like me, he also had a real bed instead of a hammock like the rest of the crew – flipping quickly through a thick book that he held in his hands.

My sight shrank back down to my immediate area, and I headed for the open galley doorway. I had a couple hours to kill before it was time to wake up the second shift, so I figured I could help Bepo with whatever he was doing on the low deck. At the very least it would be something to keep me awake and busy.

So with my decision made, I tip-toed out of the galley and headed towards the stairs, trying to be as quite as possible so as not to disturb my exhausted crewmates.

As I had guessed, Bepo had been securing the supplies in the store rooms. He was panting up a storm and moving quite sluggishly due to the heat. He agreed to my offer to help and the two of us worked to complete the task. It didn't take too long, so once it was finished we both headed back up the stairs, where we split up. He decided to go outside to get some fresh air – mumbling about a twitchy nose the whole time – while I thought to pop in on Kinney and keep him company. He probably wouldn't mind having someone to keep him awake, since he had been working for the whole day as well.

So the first five hour shift passed by quickly with absent minded conversations. Kinney and I talked about whatever came to mind, both just talking to keep ourselves awake and vigilant. He tried to point out the different devices surrounding his large swiveling seat, but they all looked the same to me. The sonar was the only one I could determine because it would give off muted beeps every thirty seconds.

The time for me to wake up the second shift guys finally came and I left Kinney with a quick wave. "Once Teamer comes to replace you, you're set to get some sleep," I said with a tired smile as I left the navigation room.

He gave me a wave through the closed door, knowing that I could still see him, and then turned back to his controls. I hurried down the stairs to the middeck and came to the door that would lead into the first men's quarters' room, which was host to the sleeping members of the next shift. I turned the handle and knocked loudly on the door. "Hey guys," I called into the room with their sleeping shadows, "Time to get up!"

My announcement was greeted with a chorus of groans and grunts and an excessive amount of curse words – most of the latter came from Julian, the ship's resident swear word encyclopedia.

Teamer's outline was the first to toss himself from his upper hammock. He landed quietly on his feet, and in a silent, zombie-like manner he shuffled past me, leaving the room and heading towards the stairs. As I had learned over the past two weeks or so, Teamer was not good with mornings. He could get up just fine without complaining like the rest of the crew, but he wouldn't speak in more than grunts and mumbles until he'd been up for at least an hour or so.

"Come on, guys – wake up!" I called again. "There's coffee in the kitchen," I said, trying to lure them out of their sleep.

More groans and grunts started coming from their barely stirring outlines, and I realized I would have to pull out the big guns for this mission.

My hand slid around on the cold metallic wall, and I smiled fiendishly as my fingers found what I'd been searching for.

The light switch.

As soon as I flipped the small switch, I could tell it was working. While I couldn't actually tell if the light had come on or not, and had no idea how a mere light could affect someone so viciously, I could tell that the guys were much more awake – their curses proved it.

"You're fucking evil," Julian hissed poisonously. He covered his face with the shadowy bend of his arm and tried to hide from the surely blinding light that was assaulting him from above.

My fiendish grin only grew wider as I tip-toed to his side. He was lying on the bottom hammock, below where Teamer had been sleeping a few moments before. I crouched down so that we were on even levels and said with as innocent a voice as I could muster, "You think I'm evil?"

Before he could tell me just how evil I was, with many colorful curse words added for emphasis, my hands shot out and quickly jabbed him in the side. The effect was just as I had hoped. The hammock swung violently to one side and spit my angry crewmate to the hard sub floor. A heavy stream of curses and terrible death-threats streamed from the man's mouth, all aimed in my direction.

"You're right – I guess I am kind of evil," I laughed. I stood back up and placed my hands on my hips, "So is everyone gonna get up now?"

Aside from being ridiculously fun, my stunt had been ultimately effective. The rest of the guys were starting to haul themselves out of their sleep. Miles was the first of the remaining group to get up - seeing as Julian hadn't gotten up even after my rude removal from his hammock, but had instead resorted to lying face down on the floor with his head buried in his folded arms. Miles ran a hand through his overgrown hair, the shadowy edges of which I could see coming to a stop just at the edge of his jaw and swept his cowboy hat onto his head. "Sheila, that coffee better be Broth's strongest stuff."

I nodded, "He said it could keep you going for a good while if you didn't dilute it any."

Miles sighed unhappily, "No milk and sugar then." He stifled a large yawn with the crook of his arm and walked over to the unmoving Jackal as he lay silently in his lower hammock. He gave a couple loud slaps to the flirty man's face. "Let's go, Jack. Stop fantasizing and wake up."

The recipient of the slaps groaned and pushed away Miles' hand, "Just a few more minutes. I'm almost to the good part."

"Now, mate," Miles said tiredly, digging his knee into Jackal's side.

Leaving the flirty man to Miles, I turned my attention back to Jules, who was now snoring away on the cold floor of the sub, and Camin, who'd so far only responded to my wake-up call with a few grunts and groaned protests.

It took longer than I had anticipated, but eventually I managed to push the rest of the guys out the door. Kinney was just getting down to the mid-deck as I was leaving the men's quarters' door. He gave us all a wave as he came to the other door and said with a sleepy voice much quieter than his usual one, "Good luck."

He disappeared and I continued pushing on Jackal's back to get him to move forward. The flirty man gave a huffy sigh, "I didn't even get my special wake-up service. I had a very detailed plan for you to follow."

I mentally rolled my eyes and gave his back a harder shove towards the open doorway of the galley, "Too bad – ugh, I feel about to collapse. Hurry up and get your coffee so I can get to bed." We stepped into the galley, where Camin was already guzzling a large mug of very strong smelling coffee. Julian was also drinking from an overly large mug, but was alternating between taking large swigs and slapping his cheeks to help wake him up more immediately than just the caffeine in the brew.

I plopped myself down on the nearest bench, waiting for the guys to hurry up and drink their coffee. My "eyes" were killing me, and I desperately craved sleep.

Camin and Jules refilled their mugs and headed down to the low deck, leaving just Miles, Jackal and I in the galley.

Miles leaned against the curtained doorway to the kitchen, slowly shaking his head as he breathed in the scent of his coffee, "I can't do it. Coffee tastes disgusting without all the milk and sugar." Even from across the room I could tell that his mug of coffee was much less potent. I could smell the sugar and milk that had been added, giving his coffee a scent that was almost sickeningly sweet.

Jackal shook his head as he downed most of his cup. "Yours' isn't even coffee any more, it's so pale. It's just milk with coffee flavoring."

Miles tipped up the rim of his hat, "Yeah, I know, but I can't help it. I like what I like."

I could hear the smirk in Jackal's small little laugh as he touched his mug to his lips, "I can understand that, at least."

I could practically feel Miles rolling his eyes at his friend.

The two of them finished their coffee quickly. Miles had retreated back to the kitchen to get one more for the road, but Jackal claimed that one would be enough for him. The flirty man propped himself up on my shoulder while I still sat on the bench nearest the vacant galley doorway. I was about to push him off of me, per my usual routine, when the submarine made a bad sound.

Something like a loud and echoing metallic screech rang out through the entire body of the sub. I could feel the floor starting to vibrate beneath us in unison with the stretching scream. It sounded as though the submarine was alive and crying out in pain.

And then, suddenly the sound stopped.

Miles pushed his way out of the curtain with a new cup of coffee in his hands. "What in the flyin' fuck was that?" he asked with an alarmingly worried tone.

I shook my head and was about to reply with an "I don't know" when suddenly the submarine gave a sharp jerk, followed by a few smaller ones. I toppled off of the bench and my hands and knees hit the hard metal floors. As I had been propping up Jackal, He also fell forward. He came close to hitting his face on the edge of the table, but managed to push his hands down quick enough to grab at the approaching metal edge before his face had the chance to collide with it. Miles gave a loud curse as his scalding cup of coffee, which had been previously full to the brim, spilled over the edges of his mug and burnt his hands. In reaction, he had dropped the cup, and the whole thing shattered on the metal floor with a resounding crash and splash. One of the shards nicked my hand, but thankfully the burning coffee hadn't splattered on me.

"What the hell's going on?" Jackal asked to no one in particular as he offered a hand to help me up from the floor.

I heard a surge in power come from the belly of the submarine – specifically the engine room – and then nothing. The sub was no longer making any of its usual noises. I couldn't even hear the muted warbling of the boilers that was constantly running in the background.

"Shit," Miles muttered, "Even the emergency lights aren't coming on. Sarin, can you see what's going on with your eyes?"

I nodded – though from the sounds of it, it didn't seem like they could see me – and said, "Yeah – lemme check."

My shadowy vision stretched out and expanded, only to snap back to my immediate surroundings.

"Damn – never mind. My haki-sight's too exhausted…I've kinda been using it all day to keep an eye out on the surrounding waters." I cursed myself for wasting my energy – now when it seemed my shadowy sight would actually come in handy for the crew, I wasn't even able to use it. All I was able to see was the three of us in the galley – and even that much was pushing it. My mental eyes were starting to hurt, and I knew a bad headache was probably waiting for me just around the bend.

Suddenly, the loud speakers crackled on, and Captain's icy voice echoed through the silent submarine. "What's happened?"

Another mechanical click echoed through the sub, as someone else turned on the microphone to their P.A. panel. The system ran throughout the sub, and each major room had a panel on the wall that allowed them to send messages through the whole ship. Teamers' panicked voice bounded through the speakers in reply, "Captain! We've arrived early at the Downward Plume! I had to hit the kill switches for the power, engines and boi-"

But the submarine gave another deafening screeching sound – and this time, it was accompanied by a strong movement, as though the submarine was being sucked into something.

The intercom system had given a high pitched squeal as well, but we could hear Teamer's voice shouting through it. "We're being sucked in!" He yelled.

Not a second had passed – the moment those words left his lips and traveled through the submarine, our ship gave a jarring lurch, and a frightening free-fall began.

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><p><strong>An: Alright, THIS TIME I promise I will update quicker! If I don't, feel free to send me mental messages to hurry the hell up lol threats are also welcomed as they might get me to focus haha**

**Thanks for reading~!**


	21. Chapter 20

**Wow...it's been so long. I wonder if you guys even remember me haha I'm sorry for the hiatus - i really hadn't intended to take such a terribly long break but somehow a year and a few months have passed by. But hopefully I'm back for good and can keep updates somewhat regular :)**

**Thanks so much for your reviews, guys! You have no idea how much they've lifted my spirits after such a long period of not-so-lifted spirits.**

**Alright now, lets get to the good stuff~!**

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><p><strong>~ Chapter 20 ~<strong>

We were falling. I could feel the force of the current as it sucked us downward at such high speeds that it felt as though we were freefalling from the sky. Due to the shock of the situation, my altered Kenbunshoku shut itself off, plunging me into the pitch darkness that always lingered behind my shadowy sight. I could _see_ nothing; feel nothing but the falling sensation of the submarine. We were falling so fast that I felt my body being lifted from the cold floor of the galley to tumble through the air.

I could hear shouts and yells coming from the men's quarters down the hallway and from the low deck beneath us. "Shit!" Jackal shouted in a panic as I heard him struggling to stay anchored to the floor.

"Hold onto something!" Miles directed from the doorway of the kitchen – or at least, that's the direction he had been the last time I'd been able to "see".

I knew that the tables were very close to me. They would be my best bet for safety, seeing as they and the benches were bolted to the floor for just such occasions. I knew that I had to get a hold of them because I was betting the sub wouldn't stay upright for the entire fall and I needed a decent place to shelter myself.

I stretched out my arms as my body started to spin through the air. My balance was lost due to a combination of blind darkness and exhaustion, and suddenly I found the nearest table…

Unfortunately for me, it wasn't a hand or an arm that came into contact with it first, but the left side of my forehead. I let out a startled gasp of pain, and let my hands come immediately to my head.

My fingertips were met with warmth and dampness, while my nostrils filled with the rusty scent of blood. If it was possible, I became even more disoriented, as my body flipped so that I was upside-down while suspended in the air.

"Sarin?" Jackal's voice floated to me through my dizzy darkness, "What happened?"

"Hit my…hit my head," my voice slurred. My mind felt like it was spinning inside of my skull while my stomach was doing back flips. The wound shouldn't have affected me so much, but the fact that I was completely exhausted – body and mind – was what really took a toll on my mental state.

I felt a searching hand brush against my limp arm and then trail over to my wrist. My mind seemed to fray at the very seems as my coherent thoughts finally diminished.

* * *

><p>Jackal acted instinctively once the sub started to drop. He tucked a foot around the metal leg of the table and quickly hooked his fingers under the table's edge. He had been struggling to keep himself from being thrown loose from his anchor when he felt the table give a subtle jolt and heard a girlish yelp of surprise and pain.<p>

"Sarin?!" He asked quickly, "What happened?"

Despite the clangs and clashes echoing throughout the falling sub, Jackal could hear Sarin's loud and raspy breaths. "Hit my," she panted, "Hit my head." Her voice was slurring and weak. He knew she'd been exhausted – add a blow to the head to the equation, and it was a good bet her consciousness would waver.

Jackal reached a blind hand out in the direction her voice had come from and managed to graze her upper arm. She tensed a bit at the sudden touch and mumbled something inaudible. He slid his hand down to find her wrist and once he had a good grip on her, pulled her though the air towards him.

"What's going on?" Miles shouted over the clanging backdrop of noise, "Is she okay?"

Jackal held onto her tightly as her body lolled about with the sub. So far the submarine had stayed flat as it fell, but he could feel the ground beneath him starting to tilt and tip into what would soon be a spiraling nosedive. He had no time to check on the severity of Sarin's head wound.

"I think she's passed out," Jackal shouted as he attempted to push Sarin's stilled body lower to the ground, "I'm gonna try to get her under the table to keep her from getting tossed around."

"You get under there too!" Miles quickly replied, "Make sure she doesn't hit her head again!"

Jackal nodded vaguely and laid himself flat on the ground side by side with the bench. "Alright – You okay where you're at?"

"I'm good – just worry about Sheila and you."

He hugged Sarin to his chest as tightly as he could with one arm, and used his legs to maneuver the two of them through the gap beneath the bench and the floor, and past it so that they were under the galley table. The sub was now spinning as it tipped forward. It was going so fast with so much force that it was hard to keep from banging into the underside of the table and the benches to either side of them.

Jackal kept Sarin tightly against his chest, with one arm around her back and another curled around her head to act as buffers to keep her from getting any more banged up than she already was. He was constantly afraid that they'd slip out from under the table's protection, so he hooked his feet around the table legs as some form of security.

The total time they spent falling and spinning was probably close to ten minutes, but to Miles, as he kept himself wedged in the kitchen doorway and Jackal, as he was busy worrying about Sarin's unconsciousness, it felt like hours.

Chaos had erupted all throughout the sub. Teamer and Bepo in the navigation room were strapped into their seats at the control panels while feeling every turn and spiraling movement with light heads and disorientation; all the guys on the low deck were most concerned with keeping away from the hot parts of the engines and boilers, as they searched for something solid to grasp onto; those of the crew who had already turned in for sleep were clutching to their hammocks for stability as they were whipped about; and lastly Law was calmly sitting at his desk, using nothing but his legs beneath his bolted down desk to keep him still despite the swift movements of the sub. If it wasn't completely dark on the sub, looking at Law, you'd never know that something so dangerous was going on.

Finally, the submarine started to slow down and flip itself upright. With the freefall finally over, Teamer and Bepo switched the power back on, but kept the engines and boilers offline. The emergency lights flickered on with a constant monotonous hum, flooding all levels of the sub with dim red light.

The sub finally slowed to a near stand-still. The Downward Plume had taken them down as far as it could. Jackal let go of Sarin and set her gently on the floor beneath the table. As there wasn't much room beneath what had been their shield, he was left kneeling over her from one side. The red lights gave him a chance to check the severity of her head wound.

It was deeper than he'd imagined. A large crimson gash had opened up right below her hairline. Dark blood trickled down the left side of her face and had soaked into the thin braid that swept across her forehead and hung down by her left cheek. The feathers tied into the end were also matted and ruined with the dark liquid.

"Shit," Jackal muttered as he pressed a hand on the wound. "Sarin? Can you hear me?"

Her cheek twitched at the sound of his voice but she didn't stir.

Miles released his hands from their vise-like grip on the kitchen doorframe and wobbled over to the middle table where Jackal and Sarin were still sheltered. "Get her out from under there, mate," he advised, leaning against the table for support as he was still dizzy and unbalanced from the sub's freefall, "Give her some room to breathe."

Jackal nodded and scooted out into the open, carefully pulling Sarin with him. Smears of dark blood trailed behind her as she was finally maneuvered out from under the table. Miles and Jackal knelt on either side of her, the latter putting his hands back over the girl's bleeding wound.

"Sheila? Sarin, can you hear me?" Miles asked, trying to stir some reaction from the unconscious girl.

The static-filled speakers suddenly clicked on – they ran on a backup power circuit like the emergency lights – and Law's almost amused sounding voice echoed through the sub. "Head count," he said before his voice disappeared with a click.

Kinney's voice was the next to echo through the speakers, "Kinney, Penguin, Shachi, Rice, Broth, Eli, Seko – we're okay in the sleeping quarters, though Eli tore his stitches again." You could vaguely hear Eli's complaining voice in the background, but it was cut off as Vic started speaking.

"Vic and JB – fine except for a few small burns from the boilers." Vic's voice disappeared with a grainy click.

Bepo's voice was next to speak, telling everyone that he and Teamer were dizzy but alright. Julian followed Bepo and after a string of expletives said that he and Camin were good.

Miles scrambled over to the Galley's P.A. box. He held down the red button and started speaking into the box's microphone, "Miles, Jackal, and Sarin in the galley – Sheila hit her head and needs stitches. She's unconscious. We're takin' her to the infirmary."

He released the button and hurried back over to Jackal and Sarin. They carefully lifted her from the cold metal floor and situated her into Jackal's arms. Rice, Eli and Broth were suddenly at the galley doorway as Jackal carried her out into the hallway.

"What happened?" Rice asked as she pressed his pointer and middle fingers to her neck to check her pulse.

"Whacked her head on a table corner," Jackal answered as the group headed for the stairway, "She lost consciousness right after it happened."

Rice counted under his breath for a couple seconds and then pulled his fingers away. "Her pulse is a little slow, but nothing alarming."

"She gonna be alright?" Eli asked as he held a bloody towel to the bend of his arm, where his stitches had torn in all the chaos.

Rice nodded as he pulled a bandana out of his pocket and pressed it onto Sarin's trickling wound.

"She's a tough'n…she'll be okay," Broth said to himself, as if trying to abate his worries. He followed the procession as they hurried up the spiraling stairs, all the while trying their hardest not to jostle the unconscious redhead in Jackal's arms.

As they reached the infirmary on the upper deck, Bepo was standing by the sliding doors, waiting for them. He'd already prepared the operating table and the other cot for use.

"Thanks Bepo," Rice said as they entered the room. "Alright, get Sarin on the table – Eli you sit down on the cot and keep that towel pressed down tight."

Rice quickly went to the sink and scrubbed his hands down before rummaging through the different drawers and cupboards for the supplied he'd need. "Okay," he said after a slowly released breath, "Everyone who isn't injured or able to help needs to clear out." He tossed a pair of latex gloves over to Miles, "You know enough to handle Eli, right?"

Miles nodded as he pulled on the gloves and went to gather the material for stitches and gauze bandages, "Yeah – it's just stitchin' him up again. I can handle it."

"Good – Bepo, will you keep Sarin's hair out of the way while I work?" Rice asked as he prepared a cloth and a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

The large bear nodded and gently used his paws to keep her blood matted hair out of the way of the gash. Bepo's glassy black eyes stared seriously down at the girl, as his nose noisily sniffed at the air. "She smells weird again…" he mumbled.

No one gave his odd statement any notice, as they were too concentrated on their work.

Rice cleaned off the area around and inside the wound, and quickly readied the hook-like curved needle and synthetic stitching thread. Holding the ready needle with long tweezers, he moved to start the first stitch.

Everything happened in a blur. Sarin's eyes suddenly snapped open and her hand shot out. Rice had no time to react as his crewmate's small hands were suddenly on him – one holding his wrist so tightly that he was forced to drop the needle and thread, and the other clutching at his throat with a death grip. Sarin was on her feet and had pushed Rice back into a wall by the neck.

Her eyes…her scarred eyes were somehow narrowed, and reflected the red light with a murderous gaze. Snarling words came from deep in her throat, "Touch her and I break you." Her voice was eerie and not at all like her usual one. It sounded strained and oddly wild.

"Sa-Sarin?" Rice managed to choke out. He could barely breathe; she was pressuring his airways with her small hands.

The girl suddenly winced as if she'd heard a loud noise and loosened her hold on Rice's neck. "She is asleep…" she muttered in the strange feral voice, her scarred amber eyes starting to close. Both of her hands suddenly dropped to her sides and she staggered backwards.

Rice stayed where he was, backed up against the wall, gently massaging his throat.

"So you're the _other_ one then…" Miles breathed. The voice alone was enough for him to realize that this wasn't the same girl he'd been talking to only twenty minutes ago. This was the Anti-Sarin, as Penguin had called her.

Her head twitched towards the corner of the room where Miles had been tending to Eli – the latter of which was too shocked to say anything. She didn't respond further except to stand straight up. The red light bounced off her like an evil aura, almost seeming to radiate from her body instead of the lights on the walls. She stood absolutely still, bathing in the tense atmosphere of the room. It looked as though she'd halted her breaths and even stopped the beating of her heart. The blood from her wound had tapered down to a trickle; a stray drop managed to get stuck in the corner of her mouth.

A toothy smile broke out across her lips and her stillness was interrupted by her tongue as she licked the drop of blood away. Her stomach suddenly heaved as if she was laughing, but she didn't let the sound escape from her lips. She held onto the edge of the operating table and sighed once the silent laughing fit had passed. "Too many crew-voices here…she'd be sad if I killed them," the eerie voice spoke from Sarin's lips.

She went to take a step away from the table's edge, but once she let go of the table's edge, she started to topple towards the ground. Rice and Bepo managed to grab her at the same time, and helped her back up – but her body had gone completely lax once again and her scarred eyes had closed.

Eli finally spoke up from his stunned silence, "Did she pass out again?"

Rice and Bepo managed to get her back onto the operating table, "Yeah…holy shit that was weird."

The door suddenly slid open and Jackal and Broth appeared in the doorway. "Did she wake up?" Broth asked.

Jackal eyed the almost identical looks of confusion on everyone's faces – the only exception being Bepo who looked merely interested while he was sniffing at Sarin's face. "What happened?"

Rice shook his head, "Well…she did wake up for a bit but…"

"It wasn't her. It was the other one," Miles continued. He finished wrapping up Eli's arm and then turned to Rice, "Better stitch her up quick – before she wakes up again."

Rice nodded, "Right…someone should go tell Captain what happened."

Miles nodded, "I'll do it." He squeezed past Broth and Jackal in the doorway and headed for the stairs.

"So," Broth said slowly, "The girl's other self was the one tha' woke up?"

Eli nodded as he watched Rice prepare another needle and thread for the stitches. "She woke up, practically strangled Rice, said that Sarin was sleeping, and then passed out…it was fucking creepy."

"I guess Penguin wasn't exaggerating then…" Rice said as he worked, sticking the needle through the separated edges of skin on her forehead and then pulling the thread through.

* * *

><p>Law watched the newest member of his crew as she slept quietly on the operating table. It seemed that despite her great dislike of the infirmary, she was beginning to become a regular resident. What was this? Her third time being brought here with some major ailment in only two and a half weeks of membership? She had ridiculously bad luck, but he had to say that at least she'd been entertaining.<p>

The aftermath of the freefall hadn't been too severe – a few burns and scrapes here and there, and minor messes that had to be taken care of, but otherwise, everything was going smoothly. The sub hadn't obtained any injuries either, though they would have to do a more thorough checkup once they reached their destination. Teamer had finally turned the ship's power back on, as well as the engines and boilers, meaning that they could continue forward on their journey to Fishman Island.

Miles had taken care of Eli's torn stitches, so now the only semi-major problem was how to deal with Miss Sarin.

Bepo shifted in his spot by the infirmary doorway. His black nose was constantly twitching and he never let his eyes off of Sarin's sleeping form. He opened his mouth for a second as if he were about to say something, but then quickly snapped it shut again.

Law raised an eyebrow at his firstmate, "Something wrong?"

Bepo just shook his head, "She still smells funny…like chemicals and rust."

As if in response to Bepo's words, the girl suddenly let out a blood curtailing scream, and threw herself into a sitting position, her chest rising and falling rapidly with panting breaths. Her hands clutched the sides of the metal operating table and her eyes had opened as wide as they could go.

"Everything alright?" Law asked boredly, not startled in the least by the girl's sudden outburst. She seemed to have awoken from a very violent dream.

Her nostrils flared and her brow drew downward. "Cold voice…but not his...her Captain's," the other spat, her knuckles turning white as she managed to tighten her grip on the table.

"Yes – I'm your Captain."

"Not mine," she said instantly, "Hers."

Law stood from his seat and leaned on one of the counters, folding his arms across his narrow chest, "You're two parts of the same whole – and whether you like it or not, your body is under my commission, meaning that I am your Captain."

She gave Law a poisonous look, but didn't reply. It was hard to tell that she was blind with her using her scarred eyes so effectively.

Law ignored the evil look she was sending his way and simply stared right back. "So why exactly are you the sole consciousness? What's wrong with Miss Sarin?"

"Sleeping," she answered curtly, turning her head to face the floor, "Won't wake up."

"Have you tried?" Law asked.

The other gave a short nod, "She needs to sleep."

The Dark Doctor frowned a bit as he thought and then pushed himself lightly off of the counter he'd been leaning on, "Well since you don't seem to be worried about it, it can't be anything too serious. If she'd fallen into a coma, I doubt even you'd be conscious." Law was silent and then turned to Bepo, who'd been keeping quiet by the sliding door. "Take Miss Sarin to her usual station and tell Broth to keep an eye on her."

The blind girl's brow furrowed impossibly deep, "That's _her_ name."

"Yes Captain," Bepo said at the same time.

Law nodded at his first mate and looked back at the other consciousness in Sarin's body. "Am I wrong in assuming that you have access to all of Sarin's memories of being on the ship?"

The other Sarin didn't say anything.

Law smirked, taking her silence as an affirmation, "Good then – go help Broth like you usually – "

"_She,_" the girl muttered under her breath.

"- do," Law continued without paying her any attention. He narrowed his eyes and let his smirk grow into a tight-lipped smile, "And if you hurt any one of my crew, I won't hesitate to cut the lungs from your body and make you watch as I squeeze all of the oxygen from them."

Her mouth curled into a frown, and she didn't speak.

Law kept his frightening smile planted on his lips so that she could plainly hear it as he spoke, "Good. You can go now."

* * *

><p>The faded blue eyes of the so-called Dead Man stared at a large metal box that looked oddly like a coffin. It was made entirely out of seastone – perfect for containing his new pet-project, 14K. With a syringe in hand, he carefully unlatched the Kairoseki coffin and peered down at his subordinate for the pending trip to retrieve his runaway 5A.<p>

Fiercely gold eyes looked up at him with burning hatred, but the occupant of the coffin didn't stir. His body – leathery skin tinted deep blue for the most part with grayish-white accents, gills prominent along the sides of his neck, teeth slightly jagged and sharp like a shark's – was shaking slightly as he tried to move, but found that he couldn't.

The Dead Man smirked tauntingly and held the syringe out in front of the Blue Shark fishman's face. The liquid inside of the medical tool was a foreboding, murky green color "Do you know what this is?"

The fishman's eyes narrowed.

The Dead Man's smile widened, "Good – then you know what'll happen if you try to do anything other than what I command. Right?"

The Blue Shark Fishman – or boy really, since he was still slightly in his adolescent years despite being so tall and broad shouldered – could only stare back in agreement. His body had been temporarily paralyzed for the trip up to Mariejois.

The Dead Man nodded and put the syringe back into its case and instead of putting the case away he pulled out a different syringe – this time one with a completely clear liquid inside of it. He stowed the case into a pocket and pulled one of 14K's arms out of the Kairoseki coffin and quickly stuck the needle into the bend of his arm. The Dead Man slowly injected the clear substance into the young fishman's bloodstream and within seconds of the needle pulling out of his skin, 14K's body was able to move again.

"Now get up and follow me – we're going to see an old friend of yours," the Dead Man informed. He started walking away, leaving his revitalized subordinate to follow.

14K sat up in his seastone travel crate and stared after the Dead Man. Curiosity joined the hatred in his eyes.

Friend? He had no such thing. Not since Banchou, and that was a long time ago.

He stood up and stepped out of the box, his legs slightly wobbly. He followed after the soft sounds of the Dead Man's footsteps as they clicked on the cold tiles. He caught up to his current handler the moment the Dead Man reached a set of cement stairs that led downward. The flight of stairs was made of grey marble stone but about twenty feet down they suddenly morphed into red stone and descended into a dark cave made of the same red rock.

He didn't have to ask where he was because the Dead Man suddenly explained, "We're on the Red Line – well, _in_ is a more accurate term. These stairs lead down to the ocean and from there we'll descend further to Fishman Island."

14K hesitated for a fraction of a second as he followed the Dead Man.

Fishman Island…

He'd only ever heard about it – and really when you lived the life of an experiment that's all you could really do when you weren't completely sedated out of your mind. Hear things. Think about things. The researchers and scientists were always gabbing away about something, and sometimes they would talk about the island located 10,000 meters below the sea.

"Won't it be interesting?" The Dead Man spoke with a taunting smile audible in his voice, "You'll get to see where you originate from."

14K's eyes darkened. "I come from nowhere…" he said under his breath – his vocal chords were finally feeling the effects of the reverse-paralysis serum the Dead Man had injected him with. His mouth felt as if it were filled with cotton, but other than that he felt back to what was relatively normal for him.

The Dead Man chuckled, "Well, genetically speaking, I should say. Your K Series is based off of Fishman DNA."

14K didn't reply anymore. He just followed his handler down the staircase cut into the Redline. They'd gotten deep enough into the cave that things had gone dark. 14K couldn't see a thing, but it didn't bother him much – darkness was something he'd gotten used to.

He listened to the Dead Man's quiet steps on the stone. They tapped gently a few steps ahead, the sounds of which joined the flapping noises of his own bare, webbed feet as they echoed down the dark cave-like stairwell. It was a long trek down. It was hard to tell time in all the darkness but it felt like a good two hours. And then 14K heard the sounds of the Dead Man's shoes splash into water.

"Oh – we're here already," the Dead Man's voice said in amusement.

14K's brow furrowed. "It's flooded?" He was confused. Wasn't there supposed to be a ship?

"Yes – that's why no one uses this tunnel anymore."

"I don't understand…" 14K said slowly.

The Dead Man laughed pointedly, "You don't have to – that's why I'm here. Now hurry up and get into the water. We've got a long ways to go and only a short amount of time."

14K stepped slowly forward until his webbed feet touched the icy water. It felt oddly comforting, despite the startlingly cold temperatures.

"We're swimming all the way down?" he couldn't help but ask. In theory it shouldn't be a problem for him, since 14K was technically speaking, a Fishman, but what about the Dead Man? He knew that the scientist was supposedly very powerful, but humans couldn't survive the greater depths of the ocean…at least, they shouldn't anyways.

But the Dead Man's good mood had run out it seemed. "Enough," he snapped, "You're not here to ask questions. If you don't get moving, I'll knock you out and leave you to drift on the ocean floor."

14K clenched his fists but kept them at his side. "Yes, Dr. Marou," he replied trying his hardest not to sound mutinous. He didn't dare call him "Dead Man" to his face, especially now that he was angry. 14K continued forward, letting the icy hands of the ocean pull his entire body beneath the surface an inch at a time.

Dante Marou. That was the real name of the scientist, but thanks to one test subject a long time ago, he was now known as Dead Man to all of the experiments. Banchou had been the first one to give him the nickname, and Banchou had been the only one able to call him that to his face.

14K was finally submerged all the way, the shocking cold pulling his thoughts away from the past. Even though the whole situation was tense, the sensation of the bitter water engulfing his thick skin made him feel strangely light inside.

There was still no light since they were still technically in the downward tunnel, making it impossible to see anything. 14K hovered just beneath the water's surface, waiting for some form of direction when there was sudden tight grip on his wrist and he was jerked in downward. Being a fishman gave 14K an advantage under the water. He could hear things just as easily as humans could above the waterline. He could hear the swift kicks and hand strokes of the Dead Man up ahead. But what was strange was the fact that he couldn't hear anything else coming from the Dead Man. There was no air leaving his mouth or nostrils. There wasn't an audible heart-beat either.

The Blue-Shark fishman shivered, and not because of the freezing water temperature.

The Dead Man had taken the lead once again, leaving 14K to follow in his wake.

* * *

><p>Broth watched the girl as she stood rigidly in the doorway of the galley. Her eyes were open, accentuating the darkened scars that diagonally dissected her pinkish amber eyes. She looked to be deciding whether or not to cross the threshold into the galley where she usually worked…well, her normal self anyways.<p>

The grizzled cook could tell that this wasn't their usual girl, in part because of her open eyes, which Sarin usually liked to keep closed, but also because there was no kindness in the aura she put off. No curiosity. No excitement. All of the things that made Sarin who she was were absent.

He wondered whether it was a good idea or not to let the _other_ one fill in for the normal Sarin, but if Law thought it was okay, then he had no right to complain.

"All right then," he started loudly to get himself in gear, "I've got breakfast to make. Do yeh know what yer supposed to do out here?"

The stranger in Sarin's body suddenly snapped her head towards Broth's position just outside the curtain that separated the galley from the kitchen. She stood there just facing him for a moment before her head gave the slightest nod.

Broth let out a loud breath, "Well good then – follow me. I'll get yeh an extra apron and a dish rag fer wipin' down the tables." He turned and disappeared into the kitchen, letting the other one follow behind with quiet, almost reluctant steps. She wasn't too far behind the cook so she pushed silently through the curtain a few moments after him.

He tossed her an apron and towel out of habit, expecting Sarin to be able to see it and catch it without a problem – but this girl was not the usual girl. Not his girl.

The spare apron and rag bounced off of her stomach and fell to the floor. After it had hit her, she'd reacted by quickly grabbing out for the tossed items, but she missed them. A small scowl twitched at the corners of her lips.

Broth stared a bit, his lips crookedly slanting as he thought. He watched her crouch to the floor and feel the cold metallic tiles with a searching hand until she found the fallen apron before he spoke.

"Can't yeh see at all?" he asked slowly, "Like shadows an' outlines?"

Her open, scarred eyes flickered up to Broth as she stood again, the rag still on the floor because it had fallen a little out of her arm's range and she hadn't noticed it. "She can…not me."

"How's that work?" Broth asked before he could curb his curiosity. He didn't really expect an answer from her – she'd been so painstakingly quiet since she'd entered the galley – but she surprised him.

Her hands were searching out the fabric of the apron – attempting to find the loop where her head was supposed to go – as she answered tersely, "Same body, different skills."

Broth nodded. That made sense. "Explains how yeh know how to liquefy people but Sarin don't," he thought aloud.

She didn't respond this time. Her hands finally found the loop for her head and slipped the apron around her neck. Fingers traced the sides of the apron until she found the strings that were supposed to tie around her back.

While she messed with the ties, Broth got another dish rag for the girl and ran it under some water long enough for it to get thoroughly dampened. "Here yeh go," he said as he offered it out to her.

Her hands came from behind her back, reaching out for the towel. Broth placed it in her hands slowly enough that it didn't startle her.

The girl controlling Sarin's body turned and walked out through the curtain – but Broth noticed something a little peculiar.

The ties of the apron weren't actually tied, but rather twisted over each other a couple times. They'd almost come undone completely by the time she'd left the kitchen. Broth pulled back the curtain after her and watched silently from the doorway as she went to work.

She moved slowly, her steps oddly pointed as she moved around, but she seemed to know where she was going despite the fact that she couldn't actually "see" like Sarin could. She went from table to table and then bench to bench – it was the same routine that Sarin usually followed, but somehow it looked terribly foreign when the other one was behind the actions.

The cook let the curtain swing back into place as he turned towards the stove and the food he had started to cook. He fidgeted with the burners as his mind wandered elsewhere.

The fact that the girl hadn't been able to tie her apron seemed to stick in his mind. He thought back for a moment to a previous stage in his life, remembering a small child trying to tie his shoes but instead just twisting the laces together because he hadn't yet been taught how to do it properly.

As far as Broth knew, Sarin never had problems tying her apron…but this other personality inside of her couldn't figure it out. Which made him wonder - if Sarin and the other one had skill sets that couldn't be shared with each other, were their memories and thoughts also separate? How far were the personalities of the girl's past and present separated?

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So how was it? xD We've finally learned the Dead Man's real name (I thought it was about time to come up with one haha)!**

**I have some interesting scenes and plot ideas for this coming up arc so hopefully I'll be back in a week(ish) with another chapter! Not sure if sending me threats will work, but I won't know for sure unless you try lol**

**Thanks for reading~!**


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